New ALMA constraints on the star-forming interstellar medium at low metallicity: a 50 pc view of the blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS 0335−052

Cormier, D., Bendo, G. J., Hony, S., Lebouteiller, V., Madden, S. C., Galliano, F., Glover, S. C. O., Klessen, R. S., Abel, N. P., Bigiel, F. and Clark, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4834-043X 2017. New ALMA constraints on the star-forming interstellar medium at low metallicity: a 50 pc view of the blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS 0335−052. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 468 (1) , L87-L91. 10.1093/mnrasl/slx034

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Abstract

Properties of the cold interstellar medium of low-metallicity galaxies are not well known due to the faintness and extremely small scale on which emission is expected. We present deep ALMAband 6 (230 GHz) observations of the nearby, low-metallicity (12 + log(O/H) = 7.25) blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS 0335−052 at an unprecedented resolution of 0.2 arcsec (52 pc). The 12CO J = 2→1 line is not detected and we report a 3σ upper limit of LCO(2–1) = 3.6 × 104 K km s−1 pc2. Assuming that molecular gas is converted into stars with a given depletion time, ranging from 0.02 to 2 Gyr, we find lower limits on the CO-to-H2 conversion factor αCO in the range 102–104 M� pc−2 (K km s−1)−1. The continuum emission is detected and resolved over the two main super star clusters. Re-analysis of the IR–radio spectral energy distribution suggests that the mm-fluxes are not only free–free emission but are most likely also associated with a cold dust component coincident with the position of the brightest cluster.With standard dust properties, we estimate its mass to be as large as 105 M�. Both line and continuum results suggest the presence of a large cold gas reservoir unseen in CO even with ALMA.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	galaxies: dwarf – galaxies: individual: SBS 0335−052 – galaxies: star formation – submillimetre: ISM
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1745-3925
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 July 2017
Date of Acceptance:	24 February 2017
Last Modified:	02 May 2023 22:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/102013

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