A High-resolution Study of the Cold Neutral Medium in and around 30 Doradus

Abstract

With the aim of evaluating the roles of the cold neutral medium (CNM) in the cloud-scale baryon cycle, we perform a high-resolution study of the CNM in and around the extreme star-forming region 30 Doradus (30 Dor). For our study, we use Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder H I Survey data and produce H I emission and absorption cubes on 7 pc scales. To examine the CNM structures toward 30 Dor, we decompose the H I absorption cube into 862 Gaussian components and find that these components are distributed at four velocity ranges (B1, B2, B3, and B4, respectively): 200$-$230 km s${}^{-1}$, 230$-$260 km s${}^{-1}$, 260$-$277 km s${}^{-1}$, and 277$-$300 km s${}^{-1}$. We derive line-of-sight average spin temperatures and opacity-corrected total H I column densities and show that the B1$-$B4 structures have systematically different properties, indicating that they are physically distinct. As for the nature of the observed CNM structures, we find that B2 is associated with the main dense structure where ionized, atomic, and molecular gases are concentrated. B3 and B4 trace inflows whose combined mass flux rate of 0.14 $M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$ is comparable to the current star formation rate, while B1 probes outflows with a much lower mass flux rate of 0.007 $M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$. Interestingly, the H I column densities in B1$-$B4 are nearly uniform with a factor of two spatial variations, implying the presence of H I shielding layers for H${}_2$ formation.

25 pages, 20 figures, 7 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ