Publications (30)
A SOFIA Survey of [CII] in the galaxy M51 I. [CII] as a tracer of Star Formation
Jorge L. Pineda, Christian Fischer, Maria Kapala +12
We present a [CII] 158um map of the entire M51 (including M51b) grand--design spiral galaxy observed with the FIFI-LS instrument on SOFIA. We compare the [CII] emission with the to…
Magnetic Fields in the Bones of the Milky Way
Ian W. Stephens, Simon Coude, Philip C. Myers +20
Stars primarily form in galactic spiral arms within dense, filamentary molecular clouds. The largest and most elongated of these molecular clouds are referred to as ``bones," which…
Synthetic Large-Scale Galactic Filaments -- on their Formation, Physical Properties, and Resemblance to Observations
Catherine Zucker, Rowan Smith, Alyssa Goodman
Using a population of large-scale filaments extracted from an AREPO simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy, we seek to understand the extent to which observed large-scale filament p…
Characterizing the 3D Structure of Molecular Cloud Envelopes in the "Cloud Factory" Simulations
Elijah Mullens, Catherine Zucker, Claire E. Murray +1
We leverage recent numerical simulations of highly resolved star-forming regions in a Milky Way-like Galaxy to explore the nature of extended gaseous envelopes around molecular clo…
Thermal Feedback in the high-mass star and cluster forming region W51
Adam Ginsburg, Ciriaco Goddi, J. M. Diederik Kruijssen +11
High-mass stars have generally been assumed to accrete most of their mass while already contracted onto the main sequence, but this hypothesis has not been observationally tested.…
Toward gas exhaustion in the W51 high-mass protoclusters
Adam Ginsburg, W. M. Goss, Ciriaco Goddi +10
We present new JVLA observations of the high-mass cluster-forming region W51A from 2 to 16 GHz with resolution 0.3 - 0.5". The data reveal a wealth of observati…
3-D CMZ II: Hierarchical Structure Analysis of the Central Molecular Zone
Cara Battersby, Daniel L. Walker, Ashley Barnes +16
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 question…
PHANGS-JWST First Results: Spurring on Star Formation: JWST Reveals Localised Star Formation in a Spiral Arm Spur of NGC 628
Thomas G. Williams, Jiayi Sun, Ashley T. Barnes +34
We combine JWST observations with ALMA CO and VLT-MUSE H data to examine off-spiral arm star formation in the face-on, grand-design spiral galaxy NGC 628. We focus on the north…
From gas to stars along the spiral wave: CO, HCN, and star formation variations across the spiral arms in NGC 4321 and M51
Minou Greve, Lukas Neumann, Mallory Thorp +17
Molecular clouds form stars from the interstellar medium via gravitational collapse, following a sequence from low-density gas to high-density cores and eventually the formation of…
A SOFIA Survey of [CII] in the galaxy M51 II. [CII] and CO kinematics across spiral arms
Jorge L. Pineda, Juergen Stutzki, Christof Buchbender +10
We present the first complete, velocity-resolved [CII] 158um image of the M51 grand-design spiral galaxy, observed with the upGREAT instrument on SOFIA. [CII] is an important trace…
Azimuthal offsets in spiral arms of nearby galaxies
Miguel Querejeta, Sharon E. Meidt, Yixian Cao +28
Spiral arms play a central role in disc galaxies, but their dynamical nature remains a long-standing open question. Azimuthal offsets between molecular gas and star formation are e…
Testing kinematic distances under a realistic Galactic potential
Glen H. Hunter, Mattia C. Sormani, Jan P. Beckmann +15
Obtaining reliable distance estimates to gas clouds within the Milky Way is challenging in the absence of certain tracers. The kinematic distance approach has been used as an alter…
3-D CMZ IV: Distinguishing Near vs. Far Distances in the Galactic Center Using Spitzer and Herschel
Dani Lipman, Cara Battersby, Daniel L. Walker +15
A comprehensive 3-D model of the central 300 pc of the Milky Way, the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is of fundamental importance in understanding energy cycles in galactic nuclei, s…
The persistence of high altitude non-equilibrium diffuse ionized gas in simulations of star forming galaxies
Lewis McCallum, Kenneth Wood, Robert Benjamin +4
Widespread, high altitude, diffuse ionized gas with scale heights of around a kiloparsec is observed in the Milky Way and other star forming galaxies. Numerical radiation-magnetohy…
Kinematic analysis of the super-extended HI disk of the nearby spiral galaxy M83
Cosima Eibensteiner, Frank Bigiel, Adam K. Leroy +33
We present new HI observations of the nearby massive spiral galaxy M83, taken with the VLA at angular resolution ( pc) of an extended (1.5 deg…
The dynamical impact of cosmic rays in the Rhea magnetohydrodynamics simulations
Karin Kjellgren, Philipp Girichidis, Junia Göoller +10
This study explores the dynamical impact of cosmic rays (CRs) in Milky Way-like galaxies using the Rhea simulation suite. Cosmic rays, with their substantial energy density, influe…
Why most molecular clouds are gravitationally dominated
Laura RamÃrez-Galeano, Javier Ballesteros-Paredes, Rowan Smith +2
Observational and theoretical evidence suggests that a substantial population of molecular clouds (MCs) appear to be unbound, dominated by turbulent motions. However, these estimat…
Introducing the Rhea simulations of Milky-Way-like galaxies I: Effect of gravitational potential on morphology and star formation
Junia Göller, Philipp Girichidis, Noé Brucy +11
The Milky Way is a complex ecosystem, for which we can obtain detailed observations probing the physical mechanisms determining the interstellar medium. For a detailed comparison w…
An inverted infall profile for the collapse of the massive star-forming IRDC SDC335.579-0.292
Jinjin Xie, Gary A. Fuller, Di Li +8
There is increasing evidence for global collapse of clumps over parsec-scales in massive star formation regions. Such collapse may result in characteristic molecular line emission…
Do spiral arms enhance star formation efficiency?
Miguel Querejeta, Adam K. Leroy, Sharon E. Meidt +32
Spiral arms are some of the most spectacular features in disc galaxies, and also present in our own Milky Way. It has been argued that star formation should proceed more efficientl…
A theoretical explanation for the Central Molecular Zone asymmetry
Mattia C. Sormani, Robin G. Tress, Matthew Ridley +5
It has been known for more than thirty years that the distribution of molecular gas in the innermost 300 parsecs of the Milky Way, the Central Molecular Zone, is strongly asymmetri…
Simulations on a Moving Mesh: The Clustered Formation of Population III Protostars
Thomas Greif, Volker Springel, Simon White +5
The cosmic dark ages ended a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars began to fill the universe with new light. It has generally been argued that these s…
How Cosmic Rays Mediate the Evolution of the Interstellar Medium
Christine M. Simpson, Rüdiger Pakmor, Christoph Pfrommer +2
We explore the impact of diffusive cosmic rays (CRs) on the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) under varying assumptions of supernova explosion environment. In practice, we…
A Two-Component Probability Distribution Function Describes the mid-IR Emission from the Disks of Star-Forming Galaxies
Debosmita Pathak, Adam K. Leroy, Todd A. Thompson +28
High-resolution JWST-MIRI images of nearby spiral galaxies reveal emission with complex substructures that trace dust heated both by massive young stars and the diffuse interstella…
3-D CMZ III: Constraining the 3-D structure of the Central Molecular Zone via molecular line emission and absorption
Daniel L. Walker, Cara Battersby, Dani Lipman +15
The Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is the largest concentration of dense molecular gas in the Galaxy, the structure of which is shaped by the complex interplay between Ga…
3-D CMZ I: Central Molecular Zone Overview
Cara Battersby, Daniel L. Walker, Ashley Barnes +16
The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is the largest reservoir of dense molecular gas in the Galaxy and is heavily obscured in the optical and near-IR. We present an overview of the far…
Origin of the IRAS Vela Shell: New Insights from 3D Dust Mapping
Bore Annie Gao, Catherine Zucker, Tirupati Kumara Sridharan +15
The IRAS Vela Shell (IVS) is a structure of enhanced FIR emission located towards the Gum Nebula, a prominent region of emission in the local Milky Way shaped by various…
The impact of spiral arms on the star formation life cycle
Andrea Romanelli, Mélanie Chevance, J. M. Diederik Kruijssen +18
The matter cycle between gas clouds and stars in galaxies plays a crucial role in regulating galaxy evolution through feedback mechanisms. In turn, the local and global galactic en…
The role of turbulence in setting the phase of the ISM and implications for the star formation rate
Tine Colman, Patrick Hennebelle, Noé Brucy +10
In this work, we explore the link between star formation, turbulence and the thermal state of the multi-phase ISM. We analyse a suite of stratified box simulations modelling a real…
The Magnetic Field in the Milky Way Filamentary Bone G47
Ian W. Stephens, Philip C. Myers, Catherine Zucker +21
Star formation primarily occurs in filaments where magnetic fields are expected to be dynamically important. The largest and densest filaments trace spiral structure within galaxie…