WISDOM Project - XXI. Giant molecular clouds in the central region of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 613: a steep size - linewidth relation

Choi, Woorak, Bureau, Martin, Liu, Lijie, Cappellari, Michele, Davis, Timothy A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4932-9379, Gensior, Jindra, Liang, Fu-Heng, Lu, Anan, Moon, Sanghyuk, Ruffa, Ilaria, Williams, Thomas G. and Chung, Aeree 2024. WISDOM Project - XXI. Giant molecular clouds in the central region of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 613: a steep size - linewidth relation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 531 (4) , 4045–4059. 10.1093/mnras/stae1394

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Abstract

NGC 613 is a nearby barred spiral galaxy with a nuclear ring. Exploiting high spatial resolution (≈20 pc) Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array 12CO(1–0) observations, we study the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the nuclear ring and its vicinity, identifying 158 spatially and spectrally resolved GMCs. The GMC sizes (Rc) are comparable to those of the clouds in the Milky Way (MW) disc, but their gas masses, observed linewidths (σobs,los), and gas mass surface densities are larger. The GMC size–linewidth relation (⁠ ⁠) is steeper than that of the clouds of the MW disc and centre, and the GMCs are on average only marginally gravitationally bound (with a mean virial parameter 〈αobs,vir〉 ≈ 1.7). We discuss the possible origins of the steep size–linewidth relation and enhanced observed linewidths of the clouds and suggest that a combination of mechanisms such as stellar feedback, gas accretion, and cloud–cloud collisions, as well as the gas inflows driven by the large-scale bar, may play a role.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0035-8711
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	7 June 2024
Date of Acceptance:	27 May 2024
Last Modified:	02 Jul 2024 11:33
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/169590

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