2018 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Star Formation Rates in the Galactic Center of the Milky Way
| Project/Area Number |
18K13589
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| Research Institution | National Astronomical Observatory of Japan |
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Principal Investigator |
Lu Xing 国立天文台, アルマプロジェクト, 特任研究員 (40794425)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | Star Formation / Galactic Center |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In FY2018, I finished the analysis of the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Very Large Array (VLA) observations toward six massive clouds in the Central Molecular Zone of our Milky Way. I attended the ASJ autumn meeting in Himeji to present a poster about these results (using Kakenhi), and the 'Tracing the Flow' conference in UK and the East Asia ALMA science workshop in Osaka to present talks (using other fundings). I also published the results in the Astrophysical Journal (Lu et al. 2019, 872, 171). In this paper, I found that two clouds are spawning massive star clusters of a few thousand solar masses, but the other clouds do not actively form stars. I also included another cloud, Sgr B2, in the analysis, and found that other than Sgr B2 and Sgr C, most other clouds in the Central Molecular Zone show less active star formation than predicted by the dense gas-star formation relation. However, in the cores of 0.2 pc scales, the star formation efficiency is 30%, which is similar to that in the Galactic disk clouds. This suggests that star formation in the Central Molecular Zone is likely suppressed at the large scale (>0.2 pc) by the 'macrophysics', but not at the small scale (<0.2 pc) by the 'microphysics'.
I also requested follow-up ALMA observations based on these results, and two grade-A PI projects were approved in FY2018 for the ALMA Cycle 6.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In FY2018, I completed data analysis of the SMA and VLA observations, as in the original research plan in the proposal. I attended three conferences and published a paper in ApJ. I am preparing another two publications based on the ALMA and VLA observations of the Central Molecular Zone, and expect to submit them in FY2019. I also got approved two new ALMA projects that are important for my follow-up studies.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
First, in FY2019 I will complete analysis of the ALMA and VLA observations of the Central Molecular Zone and submit two papers. The first paper is a census of high-mass star formation in the Central Molecular Zone by using VLA observations of masers and HII regions. The second paper is a detailed study of the formation of massive star clusters in two clouds by using high resolution ALMA observations.
Second, in FY2019 I will start to analyze new ALMA data from the two Cycle 6 projects. I aim to study the protostellar cores and accretion disks in the Central Molecular Zone clouds, which are critical for understanding star formation processes in this unique environment.
Third, in FY2019 I plan to attend the Galactic Center Workshop in October in Yokohama, and present talks or posters to advertize these results.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I submitted a purchase request in January 2019, but in March I was notified that the merchant cannot deliver the item by the end of the month. So I decided to carry over the remaining funding to FY2019.
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Research Products
(5 results)
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[Journal Article] Star Formation Rates of Massive Molecular Clouds in the Central Molecular Zone2019
Author(s)
Lu, Xing; Zhang, Qizhou; Kauffmann, Jens; Pillai, Thushara; Ginsburg, Adam; Mills, Elisabeth A. C.; Kruijssen, J. M. Diederik; Longmore, Steven N.; Battersby, Cara; Liu, Hauyu Baobab; Gu, Qiusheng
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Journal Title
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume: 872
Pages: 171-204
DOI
Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
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