WISDOM Project – XXI. Giant molecular clouds in the central region of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 613: a steep size–linewidth relation

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 531; no. 4; pp. 4045 - 4059
• Main Authors: Choi, Woorak, Bureau, Martin, Liu, Lijie, Cappellari, Michele, Davis, Timothy A, Gensior, Jindra, Liang, Fu-Heng, Lu, Anan, Moon, Sanghyuk, Ruffa, Ilaria, Williams, Thomas G, Chung, Aeree
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 01.07.2024
• Subjects: ISM: clouds; galaxies: individual: NGC 613; radio lines: ISM; galaxies: nuclei; galaxies: spiral; galaxies: ISM
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stae1394

NGC 613 is a nearby barred spiral galaxy with a nuclear ring. Exploiting high spatial resolution (≈20 pc) Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array 12CO(1–0) observations, we study the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the nuclear ring and its vicinity, identifying 158 spatially and spectrally resolved GMCs. The GMC sizes (Rc) are comparable to those of the clouds in the Milky Way (MW) disc, but their gas masses, observed linewidths (σobs,los), and gas mass surface densities are larger. The GMC size–linewidth relation ($\sigma _{\mathrm{obs,los}}\propto R_{\mathrm{c}}^{0.77}$) is steeper than that of the clouds of the MW disc and centre, and the GMCs are on average only marginally gravitationally bound (with a mean virial parameter 〈αobs,vir〉 ≈ 1.7). We discuss the possible origins of the steep size–linewidth relation and enhanced observed linewidths of the clouds and suggest that a combination of mechanisms such as stellar feedback, gas accretion, and cloud–cloud collisions, as well as the gas inflows driven by the large-scale bar, may play a role.