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Kazuo Sorai

Publications and source records attributed to Kazuo Sorai.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

High-Resolution [CI] $({^3\mathrm{P}_2}\rightarrow{^3\mathrm{P}_1})$ and CO $(J=7\rightarrow6)$ Observations of Circumnuclear Disks in Nearby Seyfert Galaxies

We present [CI] $({^3\mathrm{P}_2}\mathrm{-}{^3\mathrm{P}_1})$, CO $(J=7\mathrm{-}6)$, and 800-GHz continuum observations of the circumnuclear disks (CNDs) in the Seyfert galaxies NGC 613 and NGC 1808 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The images reveal the distributions of neutral gas and dust in nearby galaxy nuclei at a resolution of $0.2''$ (10 pc) which is unprecedented at these frequencies. Both lines and continuum exhibit peaks at the position of molecular tori. The maximum [CI]$({^3\mathrm{P}_2}\mathrm{-}{^3\mathrm{P}_1})/({^3\mathrm{P}_1}\mathrm{-}{^3\mathrm{P}_0})$ integrated-intensity ratio is $\approx1.1$ $(\mathrm{K~km~s}^{-1}$ scale) in the region of the torus, yielding an excitation temperature of $T_\mathrm{ex}\approx60~\mathrm{K}$ under the approximation of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and optically thin emission. A non-LTE radiative transfer analysis of the [CI] line ratio in the CND constrains the density and kinetic temperature of molecular gas to $n_\mathrm{H_2}>10^3~\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$ and $T_\mathrm{k}>50~\mathrm{K}$, respectively. To estimate the C/CO abundance ratio and physical conditions, we simultaneously modeled the [CI] and multiple CO lines, and obtained solutions with densities and temperatures of $n_\mathrm{H_2}\sim10^{3\mathrm{-}4}~\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$ and $T_\mathrm{k}\sim80\mathrm{-}250~\mathrm{K}$ in the central 63 pc. The C/CO ratios are $\approx2$ in NGC 613 and $\approx0.6$ in NGC 1808. C/CO tends to increase with $T_\mathrm{k}$ and decrease with $n_\mathrm{H_2}$ in the CND, which is consistent with models of photodissociation regions. Based on the kinematics of gas traced by [CI] $({^3\mathrm{P}_2}\mathrm{-}{^3\mathrm{P}_1})$ and CO $(J=7\mathrm{-}6)$, the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of NGC 613 is estimated to be $\sim2\times10^7~M_\odot$.

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ATT12: The Antarctic 12-m Terahertz Telescope for Studies of Dusty Galaxies. I. Instrument Sensitivity and Science Forecasts

We present a feasibility study of the Antarctic 12m Terahertz Telescope (ATT12), a next-generation facility to be constructed at New Dome Fuji in Antarctica, designed to open up the FIR and THz windows for extragalactic astronomy. While ATT12 will enable a wide range of Galactic and extragalactic science, this paper focuses on its potential for studies of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) across cosmic time. Using realistic atmospheric transmission models and the planned instrumental specifications of heterodyne spectrometers and wide-field multi-color continuum cameras, we assess the expected sensitivity and scientific capabilities. We show that spectroscopic observations will enable detections of [CII]158um from galaxies with log(LIR/Lsun)>12 out to z~7, while [OIII]88um will remain observable for HyLIRG-class systems up to z~10. Line ratios including [OIII]52/88um, [NII]122/205um, and [OIII]/[NIII] will provide unique diagnostics of electron density and O/N abundance at z~4-8. Wide-field continuum surveys with the continuum cameras (KIDS-1/2; 300-850 GHz) will reach confusion-limited depths of ~1-2 mJy over ~10,000 deg$^2$, detecting of order $10^{6}$-$10^{7}$ DSFGs with log(LIR/Lsun)>12 at z<5 and $\lesssim10^{3}$--$10^{4}$ HyLIRGs up to z~7 or higher. Higher-frequency cameras (KIDS-3/4; >850 GHz) are designed for targeted follow-up observations and to extend coverage toward the THz regime. Taken together, ATT12 will provide the first statistically representative samples of DSFGs across cosmic time and, through synergy with ALMA, JWST, and the proposed FIR Probe PRIMA, will establish a multi-wavelength framework in which ATT12 discovers large samples through wide-area surveys, ALMA provides high-resolution follow-up of gas and ISM structure, JWST probes stellar populations and metallicity in the rest-frame optical/NIR, and PRIMA delivers ultra-sensitive FIR spectroscopy.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). XI. Azimuthally averaged star formation rate and stellar mass relation with molecular gas amount

This study investigated the relation between the surface density of star formation rate (SFR) ($Σ_{\mathrm{SFR}}$), stellar mass ($Σ_{M_{\ast}}$), and molecular gas mass ($Σ_{M_\mathrm{mol}}$) on nearly 1 kpc scales averaged over concentric tilted rings using the $^{12}$CO $J=1-0$ mapping data of 92 nearby galaxies obtained in the CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) project. We categorized these galaxies into three groups based on the deviation of each global SFR from the star-forming main sequence (MS), $Δ$MS: upper MS (UMS), MS, and lower MS (LMS). UMS galaxies tend to be less massive or barred spiral galaxies, exhibiting molecular gas fraction ($f_{\mathrm{gas}}$) comparable to those of MS galaxies but higher star formation efficiency (SFE). In contrast, the LMS galaxies tend to be massive or active galaxies hosting an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Their $f_{\mathrm{gas}}$ values are lower than those of MS galaxies, and their SFEs are slightly lower or comparable to those of MS galaxies in the inner region. These trends indicate that enhanced SFE contributes to higher $Δ$MS values, whereas reduced $f_{\mathrm{gas}}$ results in lower $Δ$MS values. The less prominent bulge or the presence of a bar structure in UMS galaxies induces disk-wide star formation, consequently increasing the SFE. In LMS galaxies, the molecular gas is exhausted, and their star formation activity is low. Environmental effects, such as tidal gas stripping, may also reduce gas supply from the outer regions. Furthermore, our sample galaxies show that both the specific star formation rate (sSFR) and $f_{\mathrm{gas}}$ decrease in the central region in LMS galaxies but did not change in the same region in UMS galaxies. These results seem to support the inside-out quenching of star formation although the dominant cause of depletion remains uncertain.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). XII. CO-to-H$_{2}$ Conversion Factor and Dust-to-Gas Ratio

We simultaneously measured the spatially-resolved CO-to-H$_{2}$ conversion factor ($α_\mathrm{CO}$) and dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) in nearby galaxies on a kiloparsec scale. In this study, we used $^{12}$CO($J=1-0$) data obtained by the Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope with HI and dust mass surface densities. We obtained the values of global $α_\mathrm{CO}$ and DGR in 22 nearby spiral galaxies, with averages of $2.66 \pm 1.36\ M_\odot\ \mathrm{pc}^{-2}\ (\mathrm{K\ km\ s^{-1}})^{-1}$ and $0.0052 \pm 0.0026$, respectively. Furthermore, the radial variations of $α_\mathrm{CO}$ and DGR in four barred spiral galaxies (IC 342, NGC 3627, NGC 5236, and NGC 6946) were obtained by dividing them into the inner and outer regions with a boundary of $0.2R_{25}$, where $R_{25}$ is the isophotal radius at 25 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ in the $B$ band. The averages of $α_\mathrm{CO}$ and DGR in the inner region ($\leq 0.2R_{25}$) are $0.36 \pm 0.08\ M_\odot\ \mathrm{pc}^{-2}\ (\mathrm{K\ km\ s^{-1}})^{-1}$ and $0.0199 \pm 0.0058$, while those in the outer region ($> 0.2R_{25}$) are $1.49 \pm 0.76\ M_\odot\ \mathrm{pc}^{-2}\ (\mathrm{K\ km\ s^{-1}})^{-1}$ and $0.0084 \pm 0.0037$, respectively. The value of $α_\mathrm{CO}$ in the outer region is 2.3 to 5.3 times larger than that of the inner region. When separated into the inner and outer regions, we find that $α_\mathrm{CO}$ and DGR correlate with the metallicity and the star formation rate surface density. The value of $α_\mathrm{CO}$ derived in this study tends to be smaller than those obtained in previous studies for the Milky Way and nearby star-forming galaxies. This fact can be attributed to our measurements being biased toward the inner region; we measured $α_\mathrm{CO}$ at 0.85 and 0.76 times smaller in radius than the previous works for nearby star-forming galaxies and the Milky Way, respectively.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). IX. $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1)/$^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) line ratio on kiloparsec scales

While molecular gas mass is usually derived from $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) - the most fundamental line to explore molecular gas - it is often derived from $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) assuming a constant $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1)/$^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) line ratio ($R_{2/1}$). We present variations of $R_{2/1}$ and effects of the assumption that $R_{2/1}$ is a constant in 24 nearby galaxies using $^{12}$CO data obtained with the Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope and IRAM 30-m telescope. The median of $R_{2/1}$ for all galaxies is 0.61, and the weighted mean of $R_{2/1}$ by $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) integrated-intensity is 0.66 with a standard deviation of 0.19. The radial variation of $R_{2/1}$ shows that it is high (~0.8) in the inner ~1 kpc while its median in disks is nearly constant at 0.60 when all galaxies are compiled. In the case that the constant $R_{2/1}$ of 0.7 is adopted, we found that the total molecular gas mass derived from $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) is underestimated/overestimated by ~20%, and at most by 35%. The scatter of a molecular gas surface density within each galaxy becomes larger by ~30%, and at most by 120%. Indices of the spatially resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt relation by $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) are underestimated by 10-20%, at most 39% in 17 out of 24 galaxies. $R_{2/1}$ has good positive correlations with star-formation rate and infrared color, and a negative correlation with molecular gas depletion time. There is a clear tendency of increasing $R_{2/1}$ with increasing kinetic temperature ($T_{\rm kin}$). Further, we found that not only $T_{\rm kin}$ but also pressure of molecular gas is important to understand variations of $R_{2/1}$. Special considerations should be made when discussing molecular gas mass and molecular gas properties inferred from $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) instead of $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0).

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Molecular Gas Outflow in the Starburst Galaxy NGC 1482

Galactic winds are essential to regulation of star formation in galaxies. To study the distribution and dynamics of molecular gas in a wind, we imaged the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 1482 in CO ($J=1\rightarrow0$) at a resolution of 1'' ($\approx100$ pc) using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Molecular gas is detected in a nearly edge-on disk with a radius of 3 kpc and a biconical outflow emerging from the central 1 kpc starburst and extending to at least 1.5 kpc perpendicular to the disk. In the outflow, CO gas is distributed approximately as a cylindrically symmetrical envelope surrounding the warm and hot ionized gas traced by H$α$ and soft X-rays. The velocity, mass outflow rate, and kinetic energy of the molecular outflow are $v_\mathrm{w}\sim100~\mathrm{km~s^{-1}}$, $\dot{M}_\mathrm{w}\sim7~M_\odot~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$, and $E_\mathrm{w}\sim7\times10^{54}~\mathrm{erg}$, respectively. $\dot{M}_\mathrm{w}$ is comparable to the star formation rate ($\dot{M}_\mathrm{w}/\mathrm{SFR}\sim2$) and $E_\mathrm{w}$ is $\sim1\%$ of the total energy released by stellar feedback in the past $1\times10^7~\mathrm{yr}$, which is the dynamical timescale of the outflow. The results indicate that the wind is starburst driven.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). X. Physical conditions of molecular gas and the local SFR-Mass relation

We investigate the molecular gas properties of galaxies across the main sequence of star-forming (SF) galaxies in the local Universe using $^{12}$CO($J=1-0$) (hereafter $^{12}$CO) and $^{13}$CO($J=1-0$) ($^{13}$CO) mapping data of 147 nearby galaxies obtained in the COMING project, a legacy project of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory. In order to improve signal-to-noise ratios of both lines, we stack all the pixels where $^{12}$CO emission is detected after aligning the line center expected from the first-moment map of $^{12}$CO. As a result, $^{13}$CO emission is successfully detected in 80 galaxies with a signal-to-noise ratio larger than three. The error-weighted mean of integrated-intensity ratio of $^{12}$CO to $^{13}$CO lines ($R_{1213}$) of the 80 galaxies is $10.9$ with a standard deviation of $7.0$. We find that (1) $R_{1213}$ positively correlates to specific star-formation rate (sSFR) with a correlation coefficient of $0.46$, and (2) both flux ratio of IRAS 60~$μ$m to 100~$μ$m ($f_{60}/f_{100}$) and inclination-corrected linewidth of $^{12}$CO stacked spectra ($σ_{{\rm ^{12}CO},i}$) also correlate with sSFR for galaxies with the $R_{1213}$ measurement. Our results support the scenario where $R_{1213}$ variation is mainly caused by the changes in molecular-gas properties such as temperature and turbulence. The consequent variation of CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor across the SF main sequence is not large enough to completely extinguish the known correlations between sSFR and $M_{\rm mol}/M_{\rm star}$ ($μ_{\rm mol}$) or star-formation efficiency (SFE) reported in previous studies, while this variation would strengthen (weaken) the sSFR-SFE (sSFR-$μ_{\rm mol}$) correlation.

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A Method for Unmasking Incomplete Astronomical Signals: Application to CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies Project

Photometric surveys have provided incredible amounts of astronomical information in the form of images. However, astronomical images often contain artifacts that can critically hinder scientific analysis by misrepresenting intensities or contaminating catalogs as artificial objects. These affected pixels need to be masked and dealt with in any data reduction pipeline. In this paper, we present a flexible, iterative algorithm to recover (unmask) astronomical images where some pixels are lacking. We demonstrate the application of the method on some intensity calibration source images in CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) Project conducted using the 45m telescope at Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO). The proposed algorithm restored artifacts due to a detector error in the intensity calibration source images. The restored images were used to calibrate 11 out of 147 observed galaxy maps in the survey. The tests show that the algorithm can restore measured intensities at sub 1% error even for noisy images (SNR = 2.4), despite lacking a significant part of the image. We present the formulation of the reconstruction algorithm, discuss its possibilities and limitations for extensions to other astronomical signals and the results of the COMING application.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) IV. Overview of the Project

Observations of the molecular gas in galaxies are vital to understanding the evolution and star-forming histories of galaxies. However, galaxies with molecular gas maps of their whole discs having sufficient resolution to distinguish galactic structures are severely lacking. Millimeter wavelength studies at a high angular resolution across multiple lines and transitions are particularly needed, severely limiting our ability to infer the universal properties of molecular gas in galaxies. Hence, we conducted a legacy project with the 45 m telescope of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, called the CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING), which simultaneously observed 147 galaxies with high far-infrared flux in $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $J=1-0$ lines. The total molecular gas mass was derived using the standard CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor and found to be positively correlated with the total stellar mass derived from the WISE $3.4 μ$m band data. The fraction of the total molecular gas mass to the total stellar mass in galaxies does not depend on their Hubble types nor the existence of a galactic bar, although when galaxies in individual morphological types are investigated separately, the fraction seems to decrease with the total stellar mass in early-type galaxies and vice versa in late-type galaxies. No differences in the distribution of the total molecular gas mass, stellar mass, and the total molecular gas to stellar mass ratio was observed between barred and non-barred galaxies, which is likely the result of our sample selection criteria, in that we prioritized observing FIR bright (and thus molecular gas-rich) galaxies.

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The Galactic Center Lobe Filled with Thermal Plasma

An observational result of a radio continuum and H92$α$ radio recombination line of the Galactic Center Lobe (GCL), using the Yamaguchi 32 m radio telescope, is reported. The obtained spatial intensity distribution of the radio recombination line shows two distinctive ridge-like structures extending from the galactic plane vertically to the north at the eastern and western sides of the galactic center, which are connected to each other at a latitude of $1.2^{\circ}$ to form a loop-like structure as a whole. This suggests that most of the radio continuum emission of the GCL is free-free emission, and that the GCL is filled with thermal plasma. The east ridge of the GCL observed with the radio recombination line separates 30 pc from the radio arc, which has been considered as a part of the GCL, but coincides with a ridge of the radio continuum at a galactic longitude of $0^{\circ}$. The radial velocity of the radio recombination line is found to be between $-4$ and $+10$ km s$^{-1}$ across the GCL. This velocity is much smaller than the one expected from the galactic rotation, and hence indicates that the GCL exists apart from the galactic center. These characteristics of the GCL suggest that the long-standing hypothesis that the GCL was created by an explosive activity in the galactic center is unlikely, but favor that the GCL is a giant HII region.

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A 3 mm Spectral Line Survey toward the Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 3627

We conduct spectral line survey observations in the 3 mm band toward a spiral arm, a bar-end, and a nuclear region of the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 3627 with the IRAM 30 m telescope and the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. Additional observations are performed toward the spiral arm and the bar-end in the 2 mm band. We detect 8, 11, and 9 molecular species in the spiral arm, the bar-end, and the nuclear region, respectively. Star-formation activities are different among the three regions, and in particular, the nucleus of NGC 3627 is known as a LINER/Seyfert 2 type nucleus. In spite of these physical differences, the chemical composition shows impressive similarities among the three regions. This result means that the characteristic chemical composition associated with these regions is insensitive to the local physical conditions such as star formation rate, because such local effects are smeared out by extended quiescent molecular gas on scales of 1 kpc. Moreover, the observed chemical compositions are also found to be similar to those of molecular clouds in our Galaxy and the spiral arm of M51, whose elemental abundances are close to those in NGC 3627. Therefore, this study provides us with a standard template of the chemical composition of extended molecular clouds with the solar metalicity in nearby galaxies.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). III. Dynamical effect on molecular gas density and star formation in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4303

We present the results of $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) and $^{13}$CO($J$=1-0) simultaneous mappings toward the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 4303 as a part of the CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) project. Barred spiral galaxies often show lower star-formation efficiency (SFE) in their bar region compared to the spiral arms. In this paper, we examine the relation between the SFEs and the volume densities of molecular gas $n(\rm{H}_2)$ in the eight different regions within the galactic disk with CO data combined with archival far-ultraviolet and 24 $μ$m data. We confirmed that SFE in the bar region is lower by 39% than that in the spiral arms. Moreover, velocity-alignment stacking analysis was performed for the spectra in the individual regions. The integrated intensity ratios of $^{12}$CO to $^{13}$CO ($R_{12/13}$) range from 10 to 17 as the results of stacking. Fixing a kinetic temperature of molecular gas, $n(\rm{H}_2)$ was derived from $R_{12/13}$ via non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) analysis. The density $n(\rm{H}_2)$ in the bar is lower by 31-37% than that in the arms and there is a rather tight positive correlation between SFEs and $n(\rm{H}_2)$, with a correlation coefficient of $\sim 0.8$. Furthermore, we found a dependence of $n(\rm{H}_2)$ on the velocity dispersion of inter-molecular clouds ($ΔV/ \sin i$). Specifically, $n(\rm{H}_2)$ increases as $ΔV/ \sin i$ increases when $ΔV/ \sin i < 100$ km s$^{-1}$. On the other hand, $n(\rm{H}_2)$ decreases as $ΔV/ \sin i$ increases when $ΔV/ \sin i > 100$ km s$^{-1}$. These relations indicate that the variations of SFE could be caused by the volume densities of molecular gas, and the volume densities could be governed by the dynamical influence such as cloud-cloud collisions, shear and enhanced inner-cloud turbulence.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING): VI. Radial variations in star formation efficiency

We examined radial variations in molecular-gas based star formation efficiency (SFE), which is defined as star formation rate per unit molecular gas mass, for 80 galaxies selected from the CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies project (Sorai et al. 2019). The radial variations in SFE for individual galaxies are typically a factor of 2 -- 3, which suggests that SFE is nearly constant along galactocentric radius. We found the averaged SFE in 80 galaxies of $(1.69 \pm 1.1) \times 10^{-9}$ yr$^{-1}$, which is consistent with Leroy et al. 2008 if we consider the contribution of helium to the molecular gas mass evaluation and the difference in the assumed initial mass function between two studies. We compared SFE among different morphological (i.e., SA, SAB, and SB) types, and found that SFE within the inner radii ($r/r_{25} < 0.3$, where $r_{25}$ is $B$-band isophotal radius at 25 mag arcsec$^{-2}$) of SB galaxies is slightly higher than that of SA and SAB galaxies. This trend can be partly explained by the dependence of SFE on global stellar mass, which probably relates to the CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor through the metallicity. For two representative SB galaxies in our sample, NGC 3367 and NGC 7479, the ellipse of $r/r_{25}$ = 0.3 seems to cover not only the central region but also the inner part of the disk, mainly the bar. These two galaxies show higher SFE in the bar than in spiral arms. However, we found an opposite trend in NGC 4303; SFE is lower in the bar than in spiral arms, which is consistent with earlier studies (e.g., Momose et al. 2010). These results suggest diversity of star formation activities in the bar.

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CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). VII. Fourier decomposition of molecular gas velocity fields and bar pattern speed

The $^{12}$CO $(J=1\rightarrow0)$ velocity fields of a sample of 20 nearby spiral galaxies, selected from the CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING) legacy project of Nobeyama Radio Observatory, have been analyzed by Fourier decomposition to determine their basic kinematic properties, such as circular and noncircular velocities. On average, the investigated barred (SAB and SB) galaxies exhibit a ratio of noncircular to circular velocities of molecular gas larger by a factor of 1.5-2 than non-barred (SA) spiral galaxies at radii within the bar semimajor axis $a_\mathrm{b}$ at 1 kpc resolution, with a maximum at a radius of $R/a_\mathrm{b}\sim0.3$. Residual velocity field images, created by subtracting model velocity fields from the data, reveal that this trend is caused by kpc-scale streaming motions of molecular gas in the bar region. Applying a new method based on radial velocity reversal, we estimated the corotation radius $R_\mathrm{CR}$ and bar pattern speed $Ω_\mathrm{b}$ in seven SAB and SB systems. The ratio of the corotation to bar radius is found to be in a range of $\mathcal{R}\equiv R_\mathrm{CR}/a_\mathrm{b}\sim0.8\mathrm{-}1.6$, suggesting that intermediate (SBb-SBc), luminous barred spiral galaxies host fast and slow rotator bars. Tentative negative correlations are found for $Ω_\mathrm{b}$ vs. $a_\mathrm{b}$ and $Ω_\mathrm{b}$ vs. total stellar mass $M_\ast$, indicating that bars in massive disks are larger and rotate slower, possibly a consequence of angular momentum transfer. The kinematic properties of SAB and SB galaxies, derived from Fourier decomposition, are compared with recent numerical simulations that incorporate various rotation curve models and galaxy interactions.

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The Dust-Selected Molecular Clouds in the Northeast Region of the Small Magellanic Cloud

We present a high-sensitivity ($1σ<1.6~\mathrm{mJy~beam^{-1}}$) continuum observation in a 343 arcmin$^2$ area of the northeast region in the Small Magellanic Cloud at a wavelength of 1.1 mm, conducted using the AzTEC instrument on the ASTE telescope. In the observed region, we identified 20 objects by contouring $10σ$ emission. Through spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis using 1.1 mm, $Herschel$, and $Spitzer$ data, we estimated the gas masses of $5\times 10^3-7\times 10^4~\mathrm{M_\odot}$, assuming a gas-to-dust ratio of 1000. Dust temperature and the index of emissivity were also estimated as $18-33$ K and $0.9-1.9$, respectively, which are consistent with previous low resolution studies. The relation between dust temperature and the index of emissivity shows a weak negative linear correlation. We also investigated five CO-detected dust-selected clouds in detail. The total gas masses were comparable to those estimated from the Mopra CO data, indicating that the assumed gas-to-dust ratio of 1000 and the $X_\mathrm{CO}$ factor of $1\times10^{21}~\mathrm{cm^{-2}~(K~km~s^{-1})^{-1}}$, with uncertainties of a factor of 2, are reliable for the estimation of the gas masses of molecular or dust-selected clouds. Dust column density showed good spatial correlation with CO emission, except for an object that associates with bright young stellar objects. The $8~\mathrm{μm}$ filamentary and clumpy structures also showed similar spatial distribution with the CO emission and dust column density, supporting the fact that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emissions arise from the surfaces of dense gas and dust clouds.

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VERA monitoring of the radio jet 3C 84 during 2007--2013: detection of non-linear motion

We present a kinematic study of the subparsec-scale radio jet of the radio galaxy 3C 84/NGC 1275 with the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) array at 22 GHz for 80 epochs from 2007 October to 2013 December. The averaged radial velocity of the bright component "C3" with reference to the radio core is found to be $0.27 pm 0.02c$ between 2007 October and 2013 December. This constant velocity of C3 is naturally explained by the advancing motion of the head of the mini-radio lobe. We also find a non-linear component in the motion of C3 with respect to the radio core. We briefly discuss possible origins of this non-linear motion.

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A Face-on Accretion System in High-Mass Star-Formation: Possible Dusty Infall Streams within 100 AU

We report on interferometric observations of a face-on accretion system around the High-Mass young stellar object, G353.273+0.641. The innermost accretion system of 100 au radius was resolved in a 45 GHz continuum image taken with the Jansky-Very Large Array. Our spectral energy distribution analysis indicated that the continuum could be explained by optically thick dust emission. The total mass of the dusty system is $\sim$ 0.2 $M_{\sun}$ at minimum and up to a few $M_{\sun}$ depending on the dust parameters. 6.7 GHz CH$_{3}$OH masers associated with the same system were also observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The masers showed a spiral-like, non-axisymmetric distribution with a systematic velocity gradient. The line-of-sight velocity field is explained by an infall motion along a parabolic streamline that falls onto the equatorial plane of the face-on system. The streamline is quasi-radial and reaches the equatorial plane at a radius of 16 au. This is clearly smaller than that of typical accretion disks in High-Mass star formation, indicating that the initial angular momentum was very small, or the CH$_{3}$OH masers selectively trace accreting material that has small angular momentum. In the former case, the initial specific angular momentum is estimated to be 8 $\times$ 10$^{20}$ ($M_{*}$$/$10 $M_{\sun}$)$^{0.5}$ cm$^{2}$ s$^{-1}$, or a significant fraction of the initial angular momentum was removed outside of 100 au. The physical origin of such a streamline is still an open question and will be constrained by the higher-resolution ($\sim$ 10 mas) thermal continuum and line observations with ALMA long baselines.

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Diverse nuclear star-forming activities in the heart of NGC 253 resolved with ten-pc scale ALMA images

We present an 8 pc x 5 pc resolution view of the central ~ 200 pc region of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253, based on ALMA Band 7 (λ ~ 0.85 mm or ν ~ 350 GHz) observations covering 11 GHz. We resolve the nuclear starburst of NGC 253 into eight dusty star-forming clumps, 10 pc in scale, for the first time. These clumps, each of which contains (4-10) x 10^4 M_sun of dust (assuming that the dust temperature is 25 K) and up to 6 x 10^2 massive (O5V) stars, appear to be aligned in two parallel ridges, while they have been blended in previous studies. Despite the similarities in sizes and dust masses of these clumps, their line spectra vary drastically from clump to clump although they are separated by only ~ 10 pc. Specifically, one of the clumps, Clump 1, exhibits line confusion-limited spectra with at least 36 emission lines from 19 molecules (including CH3OH, HNCO, H2CO, CH3CCH, H2CS, and H3O+) and a hydrogen recombination line (H26α), while much fewer kinds of molecular lines are detected in some other clumps where fragile species, such as complex organic molecules and HNCO, completely disappear from their spectra. We demonstrate the existence of hot molecular gas ($T_rot (SO2) = 90 {\pm} 11 K) in the former clump, which suggests that the hot and chemically rich environments are localized within a 10-pc scale star-forming clump.

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