Extreme CO Isotopic Abundances in the ULIRG IRAS 13120-5453: An Extremely Young Starburst or Top-Heavy Initial Mass Function

Abstract

We present ALMA ${}^{12}$CO (J=1-0, 3-2 and 6-5), ${}^{13}$CO (J=1-0) and C${}^{18}$O (J=1-0) observations of the local Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxy, IRAS 13120-5453 (dubbed "The Yo-yo"). The morphologies of the three isotopic species differ, where ${}^{13}$CO shows a hole in emission towards the center. We measure integrated brightness temperature line ratios of ${}^{12}$CO/${}^{13}$CO $\ge$ 60 (exceeding 200) and ${}^{13}$CO/C${}^{18}$O $\le$ 1 in the central region. Assuming optical thin emission, C${}^{18}$O is more abundant than ${}^{13}$CO in several regions. The abundances within the central 500 pc are consistent with enrichment of the ISM via a young starburst ($<$7Myr), a top-heavy initial mass function or a combination of both.

7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

References in corpus (17)

• Massive molecular outflows and negative feedback in ULIRGs observed by Herschel-PACS
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Star Formation, AGN Fraction, and the Luminosity/Mass-Metallicity Relation
• Bias-free Measurement of Giant Molecular Cloud Properties
• Molecular gas in extreme star-forming environments: the starbursts Arp220 and NGC6240 as case studies
• The Herschel Comprehensive (U)LIRG Emission Survey (HerCULES): CO Ladders, fine structure lines, and neutral gas cooling
• Isotopic fractionation of carbon, deuterium and nitrogen : a full chemical study
• The Oxygen Abundances of Luminous and Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
• On carbon and oxygen isotope ratios in starburst galaxies: New data from NGC253 and Mrk231 and their implications
• Molecular gas heating mechanisms, and star formation feedback in merger/s tarbursts: NGC 6240 and Arp 193 as case studies
• High-J CO SLEDs in nearby infrared bright galaxies observed by Herschel-PACS
• ${}^{13}$CO/C${}^{18}$O Gradients Across the Disks of Nearby Spiral Galaxies
• Type Ibc supernovae in disturbed galaxies: evidence for a top-heavy IMF
• The Dense Molecular Gas and Nuclear Activity in the ULIRG IRAS 13120-5453
• HERUS: A CO Atlas from SPIRE Spectroscopy of local ULIRGs
• Around the Ring We Go: The Cold, Dense Ring of Molecular Gas in NGC 1614
• Inflowing gas onto a compact obscured nucleus in Arp 299A: Herschel spectroscopic studies of H2O and OH
• Luminous Infrared Galaxies with the Submillimeter Array V: Molecular Gas in Intermediate to Late-stage Mergers

Cited by in corpus (37)

• Stellar populations dominated by massive stars in dusty starburst galaxies across cosmic time
• Molecular outflows in local galaxies: Method comparison and a role of intermittent AGN driving
• The Dawes Review 8: Measuring the Stellar Initial Mass Function
• Full-disc ${}^{13}$CO(1-0) mapping across nearby galaxies of the EMPIRE survey and the CO-to-H${}_2$ conversion factor
• Star formation and nuclear activity in luminous infrared galaxies: An infrared through radio review
• Impact of the cosmic background radiation on the initial mass function of metal-poor stars
• A 33 GHz Survey of Local Major Mergers: Estimating the Sizes of the Energetically Dominant Regions from High Resolution Measurements of the Radio Continuum
• The hidden heart of the luminous infrared galaxy IC 860 I. A molecular inflow feeding opaque, extreme nuclear activity
• Molecular gas and dust properties of galaxies from the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey
• ALMA Astrochemical Observations of the Infrared-Luminous Merger NGC 3256
• Are local ULIRGs powered by AGN? The sub-kpc view of the 220 GHz continuum. PUMA II
• C18O, 13CO, and 12CO abundances and excitation temperatures in the Orion B molecular cloud: An analysis of the precision achievable when modeling spectral line within the Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium approximation
• Extreme CO Isotopologue Line Ratios in ULIRGS: Evidence for a top-heavy IMF
• Stellar and black hole assembly in z<0.3 infrared-luminous mergers: intermittent starbursts vs. super-Eddington accretion
• Bright Extragalactic ALMA Redshift Survey (BEARS) III: Detailed study of emission lines from 71 Herschel targets
• A CO isotopologue Line Atlas within the Whirlpool galaxy Survey (CLAWS)
• The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Stellar Initial Mass Function
• Highly turbulent gas on GMC-scales in NGC 3256, the nearest luminous infrared galaxy
• PdBI U/LIRG Survey (PULS): Dense Molecular Gas in Arp 220 and NGC 6240
• The Rest-Frame Submillimeter Spectrum of High Redshift, Dusty, Star-Forming Galaxies from the SPT-SZ Survey
• Wide-field CO isotopologue emission and the CO-to-H${}_2$ factor across the nearby spiral galaxy M101
• The Evolution of NGC 7465 as Revealed by its Molecular Gas Properties
• SMA Observations of Extended $\mathrm{CO}(\mathrm{J}=2-1)$ Emission in Interacting Galaxy NGC 3627
• High-z dusty star-forming galaxies: a top-heavy initial mass function?
• A nearly constant CN/HCN line ratio in nearby galaxies: CN as a new tracer of dense gas
• Dense Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Infrared Bright Galaxies: APEX survey of HCN and HCO+ J=2-1
• CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). X. Physical conditions of molecular gas and the local SFR-Mass relation
• Cold Molecular Gas in Merger Remnants. II. The properties of dense molecular gas
• Molecular Gas of the Most Massive Spiral Galaxies I: a Case Study of NGC 5908
• Observed CN and HCN intensity ratios exhibit subtle variations in extreme galaxy environments
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] Survey: Unveiling the baryon evolution in the ISM of $z\sim 5$ star-forming galaxies
• Investigating starburst-driven neutrino emission from galaxies in the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey
• ALMA Observation of NGC5135: The Circumnuclear CO(6-5) and Dust Continuum Emission at 45 Parsec Resolution[$\star$]
• ALMA Maps of Dust and Warm Dense Gas Emission in the Starburst Galaxy IC 5179${}^{\star }$
• Fornax 3D project: assessing the diversity of IMF and stellar population maps within the Fornax Cluster
• VERTICO IX: Signatures of environmental processing of the gas in Virgo cluster spiral galaxies through mapping of CO isotopologues
• Surveying the Whirlpool at Arcseconds with NOEMA (SWAN): III. ${}^{13}$CO/C${}^{18}$O ratio variations across the M51 galaxy