ALMA FOLLOWS STREAMING OF DENSE GAS DOWN TO 40 pc FROM THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE IN NGC 1097

Journal Article · Thu Jun 20 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/770/2/L27· OSTI ID:22118765

Fathi, Kambiz; Pinol-Ferrer, Nuria ^[1]; Lundgren, Andreas A.; Wiklind, Tommy ^[2]; Kohno, Kotaro; Izumi, Takuma ^[3]; Martin, Sergio ^[4]; Espada, Daniel ^[5]; Hatziminaoglou, Evanthia ^[6]; Imanishi, Masatoshi ^[7]; Krips, Melanie ^[8]; Matsushita, Satoki ^[9]; Meier, David S. ^[10]; Nakai, Naomasa ^[11]; Sheth, Kartik ^[12]; Turner, Jean ^[13]; Van de Ven, Glenn ^[14]

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1. Stockholm Observatory, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova Centre, 106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
2. Joint ALMA Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago (Chile)
3. Institute of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015 (Japan)
4. ESO, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago (Chile)
5. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)
6. ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen (Germany)
7. Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States)
8. Institute for Radio-Astronomy at Millimeter Wavelengths, Domaine University, 300 Rue de la Piscine, F-38406 Saint Martin d'Heres (France)
9. Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (ROC) (China)
10. Department of Physics, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
11. Division of Physics, Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8571 (Japan)
12. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
13. Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 (United States)
14. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)

We present a kinematic analysis of the dense molecular gas in the central 200 pc of the nearby galaxy NGC 1097, based on Cycle 0 observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We use the HCN(4-3) line to trace the densest interstellar molecular gas (n{sub H{sub 2}}{approx}10{sup 8} cm{sup -3}), and quantify its kinematics, and estimate an inflow rate for the molecular gas. We find a striking similarity between the ALMA kinematic data and the analytic spiral inflow model that we have previously constructed based on ionized gas velocity fields on larger scales. We are able to follow dense gas streaming down to 40 pc distance from the supermassive black hole in this Seyfert 1 galaxy. In order to fulfill marginal stability, we deduce that the dense gas is confined to a very thin disk, and we derive a dense gas inflow rate of 0.09 M{sub Sun} yr{sup -1} at 40 pc radius. Combined with previous values from the H{alpha} and CO gas, we calculate a combined molecular and ionized gas inflow rate of {approx}0.2 M{sub Sun} yr{sup -1} at 40 pc distance from the central supermassive black hole of NGC 1097.

• OSTI ID: 22118765
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 770; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
CARBON MONOXIDE
COSMIC GASES
DISTANCE
HYDROGEN
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
MICROWAVE RADIATION
MICROWAVE SPECTRA
SEYFERT GALAXIES
VELOCITY