Correlations of ALMA CO(2-1) with JWST mid-infrared fluxes down to scale of $\lesssim$100 parsec in nearby star-forming galaxies from PHANGS

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Jing, Tao, Li, Cheng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Jing, Tao
Li, Cheng
author_facet Jing, Tao
Li, Cheng
contents We investigate the correlations of CO (2-1) emission (${I_{\rm CO}}$) with PAH (${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$ and ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$) and dust (${I_{\rm F2100W}}$) emission down to scales of $\lesssim$ 100 pc, by applying \raddest, a novel regression technique recently developed by T. Jing & C. Li (2025) that effectively handles uncertainties and outliers in datasets, to 19 nearby star-forming galaxies in the PHANGS sample. We find that for the majority of the data points in all galaxies, the scaling of ${I_{\rm CO}}$ with ${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$, ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$, and ${I_{\rm F2100W}}$ can be well described by log-linear relations, though with substantial dependence on ionization conditions (i.e., HII-like, composite-like, and AGN-like). Under given ionization conditions, significant galaxy-to-galaxy variations are identified, and are primarily attributed to variations of intercept $b$, which exhibits clear bimodality. This bimodality is related to the overall host galaxy star formation strength. The differences in slope $k$ and intrinsic scatter $σ$ across different MIR bands (${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$, ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$, and ${I_{\rm F2100W}}$) are minor compared to their galaxy-to-galaxy variations. All parameters ($k$, $b$, and $σ$) depend on the spatial scale of measurement, suggesting that the coupling among CO, PAH, and dust is regulated by different mechanisms at varying scales. We identify non-log-linear behaviors in the brightest regions, where deviations are primarily characterized by flattening of slope. No significant (3$σ$) correlations are found between global properties and the best-fit parameters. We discuss the comparison to previous studies and plausible physics behind the statistical results obtained in this work.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_10464
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Correlations of ALMA CO(2-1) with JWST mid-infrared fluxes down to scale of $\lesssim$100 parsec in nearby star-forming galaxies from PHANGS
Jing, Tao
Li, Cheng
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We investigate the correlations of CO (2-1) emission (${I_{\rm CO}}$) with PAH (${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$ and ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$) and dust (${I_{\rm F2100W}}$) emission down to scales of $\lesssim$ 100 pc, by applying \raddest, a novel regression technique recently developed by T. Jing & C. Li (2025) that effectively handles uncertainties and outliers in datasets, to 19 nearby star-forming galaxies in the PHANGS sample. We find that for the majority of the data points in all galaxies, the scaling of ${I_{\rm CO}}$ with ${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$, ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$, and ${I_{\rm F2100W}}$ can be well described by log-linear relations, though with substantial dependence on ionization conditions (i.e., HII-like, composite-like, and AGN-like). Under given ionization conditions, significant galaxy-to-galaxy variations are identified, and are primarily attributed to variations of intercept $b$, which exhibits clear bimodality. This bimodality is related to the overall host galaxy star formation strength. The differences in slope $k$ and intrinsic scatter $σ$ across different MIR bands (${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$, ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$, and ${I_{\rm F2100W}}$) are minor compared to their galaxy-to-galaxy variations. All parameters ($k$, $b$, and $σ$) depend on the spatial scale of measurement, suggesting that the coupling among CO, PAH, and dust is regulated by different mechanisms at varying scales. We identify non-log-linear behaviors in the brightest regions, where deviations are primarily characterized by flattening of slope. No significant (3$σ$) correlations are found between global properties and the best-fit parameters. We discuss the comparison to previous studies and plausible physics behind the statistical results obtained in this work.
title Correlations of ALMA CO(2-1) with JWST mid-infrared fluxes down to scale of $\lesssim$100 parsec in nearby star-forming galaxies from PHANGS
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10464