2024ApJ...977...46Z -
Astrophys. J., 977, 46 (2024/December-2)
Ionized Carbon in Galaxies: The [C II] 158 μm Line as a Total Molecular Gas Mass Tracer Revisited.
ZHAO Y., LIU J., ZHANG Z.-Y. and BISBAS T.G.
Abstract (from CDS):
In this paper, we present a statistical study of the [C II] 158 μm line and the CO(1-0) emission for a sample of ∼200 local and high-z (32 sources with z > 1) galaxies with very different physical conditions. We explore the correlation between the luminosities of [C II] and CO(1-0) lines and obtain a strong linear relationship, confirming that [C II] is able to trace total molecular gas mass, with a small difference between (U)LIRGs and less-luminous galaxies. The tight and linear relation between [C II] and CO(1-0) is likely determined by the average value of the observed visual extinction AV and the range of G0/n in galaxies. Further investigations into the dependence of L_[C ii]_/LCO(1–0) on different physical properties show that L_[C ii]_/LCO(1–0) (1) anticorrelates with ΣIR, and the correlation becomes steeper when ΣIR ≳ 1011L⊙ kpc–2; (2) correlates positively with the distance from the main sequence Δ(MS) when Δ(MS) ≲ 0; and (3) tends to show a systematically smaller value in systems where the [C II] emission is dominated by ionized gas. Our results imply that caution needs to be taken when applying a constant [C II]-to-Mmol conversion factor to estimate the molecular gas content in extreme cases, such as galaxies having low-level star formation activity or high star formation rate surface density.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Ultraluminous infrared galaxies - Starburst galaxies - High-redshift galaxies - Interstellar medium - Early-type galaxies - Submillimeter astronomy
Simbad objects:
13
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