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Opening again the debate: the transient nature of the circumnuclear disk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

M. A. Requena-Torres ,
E. A. C. Mills ,
R. Güsten ,
M. R. Morris ,
A. Weiss ,
J. Martín-Pintado  and
A. Harris
M. A. Requena-Torres
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Germany, email: [email protected]
E. A. C. Mills
Affiliation:
NRAO Socorro, USA
R. Güsten
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Germany, email: [email protected]
M. R. Morris
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
A. Weiss
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Germany, email: [email protected]
J. Martín-Pintado
Affiliation:
CAB-INTA-CSIC, Spain
A. Harris
Affiliation:
Maryland University, USA
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Abstract

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Despite many investigations, the physical characteristics of the molecular gas in the Galactic center circumnuclear disk (CND) remain a topic of debate. Its mass is highly uncertain, between 104 (from dust) and 105–6 M⊙ (derived from gas tracers), and depending on the probe, density estimates for the dense clumps are 105–8 cm−3 and gas temperatures run from 50 to a few hundred K. The range of physical parameters leaves open many questions about the nature and fate of the CND. Using several ground-based observatories, together with Herschel and SOFIA, we have studied the physical conditions of the dense clumps using CO, HCN and HCO+, finding that most of them are transient. Their densities are not large enough for them to be gravitationally bound in the tidal field in the center of our Galaxy.

Keywords

Galactic center
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 9 , Symposium S303: The Galactic Center: Feeding and Feedback in a Normal Galactic Nucleus , October 2013 , pp. 100 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

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