Yoji Mizuno

The Second Survey of the Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud by NANTEN. I. Catalog of Molecular Clouds

The second survey of the molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud in 12CO ( -->J = 1?0) was carried out by NANTEN. The sensitivity of this survey is twice as high as that of the previous NANTEN survey, leading to a detection of molecular clouds with -->MCO 2 ? 104 M?. We identified 272 molecular clouds, 230 of which are detected at three or more observed positions. We derived the physical properties, such as size, line width, and virial mass, of the 164 GMCs that have an extent more than the beam size of NANTEN in both the major and minor axes. The CO luminosity and virial mass of the clouds show a good correlation of -->Mvir LCO1.1 ? 0.1, with a Spearman rank correlation of 0.8, suggesting that the clouds are in nearly virial equilibrium. Assuming the clouds are in virial equilibrium, we derived an XCO-factor of ~ -->7 ? 1020 cm?2 (K km s?1)?1. The mass spectrum of the clouds is fitted well by a power law of -->Ncloud(> MCO) MCO?0.75 ? 0.06 above the completeness limit of -->5 ? 104 M?. The slope of the mass spectrum becomes steeper if we fit only the massive clouds, e.g., -->Ncloud(> MCO) MCO?1.2 ? 0.2 for -->MCO ? 3 ? 105 M?.

THE SECOND SURVEY OF THE MOLECULAR CLOUDS IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD BY NANTEN. II. STAR FORMATION

We studied star formation activities in the molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We have utilized the second catalog of 272 molecular clouds obtained by NANTEN to compare the cloud distribution with signatures of massive star formation including stellar clusters, and optical and radio H II regions. We find that the molecular clouds are classified into three types according to the activities of massive star formation: Type I shows no signature of massive star formation; Type II is associated with relatively small H II region(s); and Type III with both H II region(s) and young stellar cluster(s). The radio continuum sources were used to confirm that Type I giant molecular clouds (GMCs) do not host optically hidden H II regions. These signatures of massive star formation show a good spatial correlation with the molecular clouds in the sense that they are located within ~100 pc of the molecular clouds. Among possible ideas to explain the GMC types, we favor that the types indicate an evolutionary sequence; i.e., the youngest phase is Type I, followed by Type II, and the last phase is Type III, where the most active star formation takes place leading to cloud dispersal. The number of the three types of GMCs should be proportional to the timescale of each evolutionary stage if a steady state of massive star and cluster formation is a good approximation. By adopting the timescale of the youngest stellar clusters, 10 Myr, we roughly estimate the timescales of Types I, II, and III to be 6 Myr, 13 Myr, and 7 Myr, respectively, corresponding to a lifetime of 20-30 Myr for the GMCs with a mass above the completeness limit, 5 × 104 M ☉.

The Magellanic Mopra Assessment (MAGMA). I. the molecular cloud population of the large magellanic cloud

We present the properties of an extensive sample of molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) mapped at 11?pc resolution in the CO(1-0) line. Targets were chosen based on a limiting CO flux and peak brightness as measured by the NANTEN survey. The observations were conducted with the ATNF Mopra Telescope as part of the Magellanic Mopra Assessment. We identify clouds as regions of connected CO emission and find that the distributions of cloud sizes, fluxes, and masses are sensitive to the choice of decomposition parameters. In all cases, however, the luminosity function of CO clouds is steeper than dN/dLL ?2, suggesting that a substantial fraction of mass is in low-mass clouds. A correlation between size and linewidth, while apparent for the largest emission structures, breaks down when those structures are decomposed into smaller structures. We argue that the correlation between virial mass and CO luminosity is the result of comparing two covariant quantities, with the correlation appearing tighter on larger scales where a size-linewidth relation holds. The virial parameter (the ratio of a clouds kinetic to self-gravitational energy) shows a wide range of values and exhibits no clear trends with the CO luminosity or the likelihood of hosting young stellar object (YSO) candidates, casting further doubt on the assumption of virialization for molecular clouds in the LMC. Higher CO luminosity increases the likelihood of a cloud harboring a YSO candidate, and more luminous YSOs are more likely to be coincident with detectable CO emission, confirming the close link between giant molecular clouds and massive star formation.

Physical properties of giant molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The Magellanic Mopra Assessment (MAGMA) is a high angular resolution ^(12)CO (J = 1 → 0) mapping survey of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud using the Mopra Telescope. Here we report on the basic physical properties of 125 GMCs in the LMC that have been surveyed to date. The observed clouds exhibit scaling relations that are similar to those determined for Galactic GMCs, although LMC clouds have narrower linewidths and lower CO luminosities than Galactic clouds of a similar size. The average mass surface density of the LMC clouds is 50 M_⊙ pc^(−2), approximately half that of GMCs in the inner Milky Way. We compare the properties of GMCs with and without signs of massive star formation, finding that non-star-forming GMCs have lower peak CO brightness than star-forming GMCs. We compare the properties of GMCs with estimates for local interstellar conditions: specifically, we investigate the H i column density, radiation field, stellar mass surface density and the external pressure. Very few cloud properties demonstrate a clear dependence on the environment; the exceptions are significant positive correlations between (i) the H i column density and the GMC velocity dispersion, (ii) the stellar mass surface density and the average peak CO brightness and (iii) the stellar mass surface density and the CO surface brightness. The molecular mass surface density of GMCs without signs of massive star formation shows no dependence on the local radiation field, which is inconsistent with the photoionization-regulated star formation theory proposed by McKee. We find some evidence that the mass surface density of the MAGMA clouds increases with the interstellar pressure, as proposed by Elmegreen, but the detailed predictions of this model are not fulfilled once estimates for the local radiation field, metallicity and GMC envelope mass are taken into account.

MOLECULAR AND ATOMIC GAS IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD. II. THREE-DIMENSIONAL CORRELATION BETWEEN CO AND H I

We compare the CO (J = 1-0) and H I emission in the Large Magellanic Cloud in three dimensions, i.e., including a velocity axis in addition to the two spatial axes, with the aim of elucidating the physical connection between giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and their surrounding H I gas. The CO J = 1-0 data set is from the second NANTEN CO survey and the H I data set is from the merged Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and Parkes Telescope surveys. The major findings of our analysis are as follows: (1) GMCs are associated with an envelope of H I emission, (2) in GMCs [average CO intensity] ∝ [average H I intensity]^(1.1±0.1), and (3) the H I intensity tends to increase with the star formation activity within GMCs, from Type I to Type III. An analysis of the H I envelopes associated with GMCs shows that their average line width is 14 km s^(–1) and the mean density in the envelope is 10 cm^(–3). We argue that the H I envelopes are gravitationally bound by GMCs. These findings are consistent with a continual increase in the mass of GMCs via H I accretion at an accretion rate of 0.05 M_⊙ yr^(–1) over a timescale of 10 Myr. The growth of GMCs is terminated via dissipative ionization and/or stellar-wind disruption in the final stage of GMC evolution.

Submillimeter Observations of Giant Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Temperature and Density as Determined from J=3-2 and J=1-0 transitions of CO

We have carried out submillimeter 12CO( -->J = 3?2) observations of six giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) with the ASTE 10 m submillimeter telescope at a spatial resolution of 5 pc and very high sensitivity. We have identified 32 molecular clumps in the GMCs and revealed significant details of the warm and dense molecular gas with -->n(H2) ~ 103?105 cm?3 and -->Tkin ~ 60 K. These data are combined with 12CO( -->J = 1?0) and 13CO( -->J = 1?0) results and compared with LVG calculations. The results indicate that clumps that we detected are distributed continuously from cool (~10-30 K) to warm (30-200 K), and warm clumps are distributed from less dense (~103 cm?3) to dense (~103.5-105 cm?3). We found that the ratio of 12CO( -->J = 3?2) to 12CO( -->J = 1?0) emission is sensitive to and is well correlated with the local H? flux. We infer that differences of clump properties represent an evolutionary sequence of GMCs in terms of density increase leading to star formation. Type I and II GMCs (starless GMCs and GMCs with H?II regions only, respectively) are at the young phase of star formation where density does not yet become high enough to show active star formation, and Type III GMCs (GMCs with H?II regions and young star clusters) represent the later phase where the average density is increased and the GMCs are forming massive stars. The high kinetic temperature correlated with H? flux suggests that FUV heating is dominant in the molecular gas of the LMC.

Submillimeter line emission from LMC N159W: a dense, clumpy PDR in a low metallicity environment

Context. Star formation at earlier cosmological times takes place in an interstellar medium with low metallicity. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is ideally suited to study star formation in such an environment. Aims. The physical and chemical state of the ISM in a star forming environment can be constrained by observations of submm and FIR spectral lines of the main carbon carrying species, CO, Ci and Cii, which originate in the surface layers of molecular clouds i lluminated by the UV radiation of the newly formed, young stars. Methods. We present high-angular resolution sub-millimeter observations in the N159W region in the LMC obtained with the NANTEN2 telescope of the 12 CO J = 4→ 3, J = 7→ 6, and 13 CO J = 4→ 3 rotational and [Ci] 3 P1− 3 P0 and 3 P2− 3 P1 fine-structure transitions. The 13 CO J = 4→ 3 and [Ci] 3 P 2− 3 P 1 transitions are detected for the first time in the LMC. We deri ve the physical and chemical properties of the low-metallicity molecular gas using an escape probability code and a self-consistent solution of the chemistry and thermal balance of the gas in the framework of a clumpy cloud PDR model. Results. The separate excitation analysis of the submm CO lines and the carbon fine structure lines shows that the emitting gas in th e N159W region has temperatures of about 80 K and densities of about 10 4 cm −3 . The estimated C to CO abundance ratio close to unity is substantially higher than in dense massive star-forming regions in the Milky Way. The analysis of all observed lines together, including the [Cii] line intensity reported in the literature, in the context of a clu mpy cloud PDR model constrains the UV intensity to about �≈ 220 and an average density of the clump ensemble of about 10 5 cm −3 , thus confirming the presence of high density material in the LMC N159W region.

An observational study of GMCs in the Magellanic Clouds with the ASTE telescope

We report the results of the submillimeter observations with the ASTE 10 m telescope toward the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Magellanic Clouds to reveal the physical properties of dense molecular gas, the principle sites of star and cluster formation. Six GMCs in the Large Magellanic Cloud have been mapped in the 12 CO( J = 3 − 2) transition and 32 clumps are identified in these GMCs at a resolution of 5 pc. These data are combined with 12 CO( J = 1 − 0) and 13 CO( J = 1 − 0) results and compared with LVG calculations to derive the density and temperature of clumps. The derived density and temperature are distributed in wide ranges. We have made small mapping observations in the 13 CO( J = 3 − 2) transition toward 9 representative peak positions of clumps to determine the density and temperature of clumps. These physical properties are constrained well and there are differences in density and temperature among clumps. We suggest that these differences of clump properties represent an evolutionary sequence of GMCs in terms of density increase leading to star formation.

An Observational Study of the GMCs in the Magellanic Clouds in Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelengths

tetsu@astro1.sci.hokudai.ac.jp 2 Department of Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Japan 3 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan 4 Research Center for the Early Universe and Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Japan 5 National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA 6 Department of Astronomy, MC 221, University of Illinois, USA 7 Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Australia 8 Radioastronomisches Institut der Universitat Bonn, Germany 9 Center for Supercomputing and Astrophysics, Swinburne University of Technology, Germany 10 School of Physics, University of Western Australia, Australia 11 Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Japan 12 Departament de Astronomia, Universidad de Chile, Chile 13 Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, South Africa 14 Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden 15 European Southern Observatory 16 Astronomy & Space Science Department, Sejong University, Korea

The Results of Sub-mm Observations in the Large Magellanic Cloud with the NANTEN2 Telescope

The study of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is important to understand the formation process of massive stellar clusters. N159 is one of the most active cluster forming regions in the LMC. Bolatto et al. [2] observed sub-mm CO and C i lines in this region and found CO(J=4–3) the emission peak at N159W. This observation didn’t have enough resolution to reveal the high temperature molecular cloud structure. So we observe with the NANTEN2 telescope to improve the image resolution.