2003/10/23 by R. Davies, L. J. Tacconi, L. Tacconi +1 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/380995
published as Astrophys.J. 602 (2004) 148-161 · accepted for publication in ApJ (see their pages for a version with higher quality figures)
arxiv created 2003/10/23 · openalex publication_date 2004/02/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We report interferometric radio CO 2-1 and HCN 1-0 observations at resolutions of 0 7 and 2 0, respectively, and 0 085 resolution adaptive optics K -band spectroscopy, including H 2 1-0 S (1) line emission and CO 2-0 stellar absorption, of the inner few arcseconds of NGC 7469. The CO 2-1 map shows a ring of molecular clouds (which in general lie outside the compact knots seen in K -band images) and a bright extended nucleus, with a bar or pair of spiral arms between them. The dynamical structure of both the radio CO 2-1 and the K -band H 2 1-0 S (1) lines at their different resolutions can be reproduced using a single axisymmetric mass model comprising three components: a broad disk, a ring 4''-5'' across, and an extended nucleus, which we interpret as an inner nuclear ring about 0 5 across. The velocity residuals between the model and the data have a standard deviation of 25 km s -1 , and no noncircular motions faster than this are seen, although this may be because in some cases a secondary bar is not expected to cause gas inflow. From the dynamical mass and estimates of the stellar mass we find that the CO-to-H 2 conversion is 0.4-0.8 times that for the Milky Way, following the trend to small factors that has been reported for intense star-forming environments. The central H 2 1-0 S (1) morphology has a strong peak at the nucleus, but this does not trace the mass distribution; the rotation curves indicate that there is no strong nuclear mass concentration. The origins of the 1-0 S (1) emission are instead likely to lie in X-ray and UV irradiation of gas by the active galactic nucleus rather than via processes associated with star formation. Using the 2.3 μm stellar CO 2-0 band head absorption and the slope of the continuum, we have directly resolved the nuclear star cluster to be 0 15-0 20 across and find that it is asymmetric. This cluster has an age of less than about 60 Myr and contributes 20%-30% of the nuclear K -band light and about 10% of the nuclear bolometric luminosity. Within a radius of ~4'' gas contributes more than half the total mass, but in the nucleus, within a radius of 0 1, it is likely that most of the mass is due instead to stars.