Mass inflow rate into the Central Molecular Zone: observational determination and evidence of episodic accretion

Mattia C. Sormani; Ashley T. Barnes

doi:10.1093/mnras/stz046

paper

Mass inflow rate into the Central Molecular Zone: observational determination and evidence of episodic accretion

arXiv:1901.00867 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stz046

Abstract

It is well known that the Galactic bar drives a gas inflow into the Central Molecular Zone, which fuels star formation, accretion onto the central super-massive black hole, and large-scale outflows. This inflow happens mostly through two symmetrical dust-lanes, similar to those often seen in external barred galaxies. Here we use the fact that the Milky Way dust-lanes have been previously identified in $^{12}$ CO datacubes and a simple geometrical model to derive the first observational determination of the mass inflow rate into the Central Molecular Zone. We find that the time-averaged inflow rate along the near-side dust lane is $1. 2_{- 0.8}^{+ 0.7} M_{⊙} y r^{- 1}$ and along the far-side dust lane is $1. 5_{- 1.0}^{+ 0.9} M_{⊙} y r^{- 1}$ , which gives a total inflow of $2. 7_{- 1.7}^{+ 1.5} M_{⊙} y r^{- 1}$ . We also provide the time series of the inflow rate $M ˙$ for the future few Myr. The latter shows that the inflow rate is variable with time, supporting a scenario of episodic accretion onto the Central Molecular Zone.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in MNRAS

Mass inflow rate into the Central Molecular Zone: observational determination and evidence of episodic accretion

Abstract

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