Affiliation:
1. School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University , Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
2. Department of Physics, Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
3. Research Center for Astronomy, Academy of Athens , Soranou Efesiou 4, GR-11527 Athens, Greece
4. European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
Abstract
ABSTRACT
We present a self-consistent cross-calibration of the three main molecular gas mass tracers in galaxies, namely the 12CO(1–0), [C i](3P1–3P0) lines, and the submm dust continuum emission, using a sample of 407 galaxies, ranging from local discs to submillimetre-selected galaxies (SMGs) up to z ≈ 6. A Bayesian statistical method is used to produce galaxy-scale universal calibrations of these molecular gas indicators, that hold over 3–4 orders of magnitude in infrared luminosity, LIR. Regarding the dust continuum, we use a mass-weighted dust temperature, Tmw, determined using new empirical relations between temperature and luminosity. We find the average L/Mmol gas mass conversion factors (including He) to be ${\alpha _{850}}=6.9\times 10^{12}\, \rm W\, Hz^{-1}\, M_{\odot }^{-1}$, αCO = 4.0 M⊙ (κ km s−1 pc2)−1, and $\alpha _{\rm C\, I}$ = 17.0 M⊙ (κ km s−1 pc2)−1, based on the assumption that the mean dust properties of the sample (κH = gas-to-dust ratio/dust emissivity) will be similar to those of local metal rich galaxies and the Milky Way. The tracer with the least intrinsic scatter is [C i](1–0), while CO(1–0) has the highest. The conversion factors show a weak but significant correlation with LIR which is not apparent when Tmw is held constant. Assuming dust properties typical of metal-rich galaxies, we infer a neutral carbon abundance ${X_{\rm C\, I}}=\rm [C^0/\rm{H_2}]=1.6\times 10^{-5}$, similar to that in the Milky Way. We find no evidence for bi-modality of αCO between main-sequence (MS) galaxies and those with extreme star-formation intensity, i.e. ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and SMGs. The means of the three conversion factors are found to be similar between MS galaxies and ULIRGs/SMGs, to within 10–20 per cent. The overarching conclusion of our work is that, for metal-rich galaxies, near-universal average values for αCO, $X_{\rm C\, I}$, and κH are adequate for global molecular gas estimates within the expected uncertainties. The 1σ scatter in our optimized values for αCO, $X_{\rm C\, I}$, and κH are 0.14, 0.11, and 0.15 dex, respectively.
Funder
European Research Council
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Space and Planetary Science,Astronomy and Astrophysics
Cited by
20 articles.
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