Dense gas scaling relations at kiloparsec scales across nearby galaxies with the ALMA ALMOND and IRAM 30 m EMPIRE surveys

Lukas Neumann; María J. Jiménez-Donaire; Adam K. Leroy; Frank Bigiel; Antonio Usero; Jiayi Sun; Eva Schinnerer; Miguel Querejeta; Sophia K. Stuber; Ivana Bešlić; Ashley Barnes; Jakob Den Brok; Yixian Cao; Cosima Eibensteiner; Hao He; Ralf S. Klessen; Fu Heng Liang; Daizhong Liu; Hsi An Pan; Thomas G. Williams

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202453208

Dense gas scaling relations at kiloparsec scales across nearby galaxies with the ALMA ALMOND and IRAM 30 m EMPIRE surveys

Lukas Neumann
, María J. Jiménez-Donaire
, Adam K. Leroy
, Frank Bigiel
, Antonio Usero
, Jiayi Sun
, Eva Schinnerer
, Miguel Querejeta
, Sophia K. Stuber
, Ivana Bešlić
, Ashley Barnes
, Jakob Den Brok
, Yixian Cao
, Cosima Eibensteiner
, Hao He
, Ralf S. Klessen
, Fu Heng Liang
, Daizhong Liu
, Hsi An Pan
, Thomas G. Williams

Physics And Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Dense, cold gas is the key ingredient for star formation. Over the last two decades, HCN(1 - 0) emission has been the most accessible dense gas tracer for studying external galaxies. We present new measurements that demonstrate the relationship between dense gas tracers, bulk molecular gas tracers, and star formation in the ALMA ALMOND survey, the largest sample of resolved (1-2 kpc resolution) HCN maps of galaxies in the local Universe (d < 25 Mpc). We measured HCN/CO, a line ratio sensitive to the physical density distribution, and the star formation rate to HCN ratio (SFR/HCN), a proxy for the dense gas star formation efficiency, as a function of molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and dynamical equilibrium pressure across 31 galaxies (a factor of > 3 more compared to the previously largest such study, EMPIRE). HCN/CO increases (slope of ≈ 0.5 and scatter of ≈ 0.2 dex) and SFR/HCN decreases (slope of ≈ - 0.6 and scatter of ≈ 0.4 dex) with increasing molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and pressure. Galaxy centres with high stellar mass surface densities show a factor of a few higher HCN/CO and lower SFR/HCN compared to the disc average, but the two environments follow the same average trend. Our results emphasise that molecular gas properties vary systematically with the galactic environment and demonstrate that the scatter in the Gao-Solomon relation (SFR/HCN) has a physical origin.

Original language	English
Article number	L13
Journal	Astronomy and Astrophysics
Volume	693
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453208
State	Published - Jan 1 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors 2025.

Funding

We would like to thank the referee, Mark Heyer, for his constructive and concise feedback that helped improve the paper. This work was carried out as part of the PHANGS collaboration. LN acknowledges funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - 516405419. AKL gratefully acknowledges support by grants 1653300 and 2205628 from the National Science Foundation, by award JWSTGO- 02107.009-A, and by a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. AU acknowledges support from the Spanish grants PGC2018-094671-B-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by "ERDF A way of making Europe", and PID2019-108765GB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. RSK acknowledges financial support via the ERC Synergy Grant "ECOGAL" (project ID 855130), via the Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence (EXC 2181 - 390900948) "STRUCTURES", and via the BMWK project "MAINN" (funding ID 50OO2206). RSK also thanks the 2024/25 Class of Radcliffe Fellows for highly interesting and stimulating discussions. FHL gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Research Council's starting grant ERC StG-101077573 ("ISM-METALS"). HAP acknowledges support from the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan under grant 110-2112-M-032-020-MY3. This paper makes use of the following ALMA data, which have been processed as part of the ALMOND and PHANGS-ALMA surveys: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2012.1.00650.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2013.1.01161.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2015.1.00925.S, ADS/ JAO.ALMA#2015.1.00956.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00230.S, ADS/JAO. ALMA#2017.1.00392.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00766.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA #2017.1.00815.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00886.L, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2018. 1.01171.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2018.1.01651.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2018.A. 00062.S. ADS/JAO.ALMA#2019.2.00134.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2021.1. 00740.S, ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO, and NAOJ. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This work makes use of data products from theWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA. This work is based in part on observations made with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). GALEX is a NASA Small Explorer, whose mission was developed in cooperation with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) of France and the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology. GALEX is operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology under NASA contract NAS5-98034. We would like to thank the referee, Mark Heyer, for his constructive and concise feedback that helped improve the paper. This work was carried out as part of the PHANGS collaboration. LN acknowledges funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 516405419. AKL gratefully acknowledges support by grants 1653300 and 2205628 from the National Science Foundation, by award JWST-GO-02107.009-A, and by a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. AU acknowledges support from the Spanish grants PGC2018-094671-B-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”, and PID2019-108765GB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. RSK acknowledges financial support via the ERC Synergy Grant “ECOGAL” (project ID 855130), via the Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence (EXC 2181 – 390900948) “STRUCTURES”, and via the BMWK project “MAINN” (funding ID 50OO2206). RSK also thanks the 2024/25 Class of Radcliffe Fellows for highly interesting and stimulating discussions. FHL gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Research Council’s starting grant ERC StG-101077573 (“ISM-METALS”). HAP acknowledges support from the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan under grant 110-2112-M-032-020-MY3. This paper makes use of the following ALMA data, which have been processed as part of the ALMOND and PHANGS–ALMA surveys: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2012.1.00650.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2013.1.01161.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2015.1.00925.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2015.1.00956.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00230.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00392.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00766.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00815.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00886.L, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2018.1.01171.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2018.1.01651.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2018.A.00062.S. ADS/JAO.ALMA#2019.2.00134.S, ADS/JAO.ALMA#2021.1.00740.S, ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO, and NAOJ. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This work makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA. This work is based in part on observations made with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). GALEX is a NASA Small Explorer, whose mission was developed in cooperation with the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) of France and the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology. GALEX is operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology under NASA contract NAS5-98034.

Funders	Funder number
NSC
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)
Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Ministry of Science and Technology
National Institutes of Natural Sciences, National Institute for Physiological Sciences
Australian Diabetes Society
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
ASIAA (Taiwan)
National Research Council Canada (NRCC)
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program	JWSTGO- 02107.009-A
Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz	50OO2206
California Institute of Technology	NAS5-98034
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	2205628, 516405419, 1653300
JAO	2012.1.00650, 1.01171, 2017.1.00766, 2019.2.00134, 00740, 2021.1, 2017.1.00392, 00062, 2018.1.01651, 2017.1.00886, 2015.1.00925, 2015.1.00956, 2017.1.00230
National Science and Technology Council	110-2112-M-032-020-MY3
H2020 European Research Council	855130, ERC StG-101077573
European Regional Development Fund	PID2019-108765GB-I00
German Excellence Strategy in the Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence STRUCTURES	EXC 2181 – 390900948
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung	MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, PGC2018-094671-B-I00

Keywords

Galaxies: ISM
Galaxies: star formation
ISM: molecules

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

Access to Document

10.1051/0004-6361/202453208

Cite this

Neumann, L., Jiménez-Donaire, M. J., Leroy, A. K., Bigiel, F., Usero, A., Sun, J., Schinnerer, E., Querejeta, M., Stuber, S. K., Bešlić, I., Barnes, A., Den Brok, J., Cao, Y., Eibensteiner, C., He, H., Klessen, R. S., Liang, F. H., Liu, D., Pan, H. A., & Williams, T. G. (2025). Dense gas scaling relations at kiloparsec scales across nearby galaxies with the ALMA ALMOND and IRAM 30 m EMPIRE surveys. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, Article L13. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453208

@article{096300cd2a0448eb8e21e9c82fed4d94,

title = "Dense gas scaling relations at kiloparsec scales across nearby galaxies with the ALMA ALMOND and IRAM 30 m EMPIRE surveys",

abstract = "Dense, cold gas is the key ingredient for star formation. Over the last two decades, HCN(1 - 0) emission has been the most accessible dense gas tracer for studying external galaxies. We present new measurements that demonstrate the relationship between dense gas tracers, bulk molecular gas tracers, and star formation in the ALMA ALMOND survey, the largest sample of resolved (1-2 kpc resolution) HCN maps of galaxies in the local Universe (d < 25 Mpc). We measured HCN/CO, a line ratio sensitive to the physical density distribution, and the star formation rate to HCN ratio (SFR/HCN), a proxy for the dense gas star formation efficiency, as a function of molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and dynamical equilibrium pressure across 31 galaxies (a factor of > 3 more compared to the previously largest such study, EMPIRE). HCN/CO increases (slope of ≈ 0.5 and scatter of ≈ 0.2 dex) and SFR/HCN decreases (slope of ≈ - 0.6 and scatter of ≈ 0.4 dex) with increasing molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and pressure. Galaxy centres with high stellar mass surface densities show a factor of a few higher HCN/CO and lower SFR/HCN compared to the disc average, but the two environments follow the same average trend. Our results emphasise that molecular gas properties vary systematically with the galactic environment and demonstrate that the scatter in the Gao-Solomon relation (SFR/HCN) has a physical origin.",

keywords = "Galaxies: ISM, Galaxies: star formation, ISM: molecules",

author = "Lukas Neumann and Jim{\'e}nez-Donaire, \{Mar{\'i}a J.\} and Leroy, \{Adam K.\} and Frank Bigiel and Antonio Usero and Jiayi Sun and Eva Schinnerer and Miguel Querejeta and Stuber, \{Sophia K.\} and Ivana Be{\v s}li{\'c} and Ashley Barnes and \{Den Brok\}, Jakob and Yixian Cao and Cosima Eibensteiner and Hao He and Klessen, \{Ralf S.\} and Liang, \{Fu Heng\} and Daizhong Liu and Pan, \{Hsi An\} and Williams, \{Thomas G.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Authors 2025.",

year = "2025",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1051/0004-6361/202453208",

language = "English",

volume = "693",

}

Neumann, L, Jiménez-Donaire, MJ, Leroy, AK, Bigiel, F, Usero, A, Sun, J, Schinnerer, E, Querejeta, M, Stuber, SK, Bešlić, I, Barnes, A, Den Brok, J, Cao, Y, Eibensteiner, C, He, H, Klessen, RS, Liang, FH, Liu, D, Pan, HA & Williams, TG 2025, 'Dense gas scaling relations at kiloparsec scales across nearby galaxies with the ALMA ALMOND and IRAM 30 m EMPIRE surveys', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 693, L13. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453208

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dense gas scaling relations at kiloparsec scales across nearby galaxies with the ALMA ALMOND and IRAM 30 m EMPIRE surveys

AU - Neumann, Lukas

AU - Jiménez-Donaire, María J.

AU - Leroy, Adam K.

AU - Bigiel, Frank

AU - Usero, Antonio

AU - Sun, Jiayi

AU - Schinnerer, Eva

AU - Querejeta, Miguel

AU - Stuber, Sophia K.

AU - Bešlić, Ivana

AU - Barnes, Ashley

AU - Den Brok, Jakob

AU - Cao, Yixian

AU - Eibensteiner, Cosima

AU - He, Hao

AU - Klessen, Ralf S.

AU - Liang, Fu Heng

AU - Liu, Daizhong

AU - Pan, Hsi An

AU - Williams, Thomas G.

PY - 2025/1/1

Y1 - 2025/1/1

N2 - Dense, cold gas is the key ingredient for star formation. Over the last two decades, HCN(1 - 0) emission has been the most accessible dense gas tracer for studying external galaxies. We present new measurements that demonstrate the relationship between dense gas tracers, bulk molecular gas tracers, and star formation in the ALMA ALMOND survey, the largest sample of resolved (1-2 kpc resolution) HCN maps of galaxies in the local Universe (d < 25 Mpc). We measured HCN/CO, a line ratio sensitive to the physical density distribution, and the star formation rate to HCN ratio (SFR/HCN), a proxy for the dense gas star formation efficiency, as a function of molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and dynamical equilibrium pressure across 31 galaxies (a factor of > 3 more compared to the previously largest such study, EMPIRE). HCN/CO increases (slope of ≈ 0.5 and scatter of ≈ 0.2 dex) and SFR/HCN decreases (slope of ≈ - 0.6 and scatter of ≈ 0.4 dex) with increasing molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and pressure. Galaxy centres with high stellar mass surface densities show a factor of a few higher HCN/CO and lower SFR/HCN compared to the disc average, but the two environments follow the same average trend. Our results emphasise that molecular gas properties vary systematically with the galactic environment and demonstrate that the scatter in the Gao-Solomon relation (SFR/HCN) has a physical origin.

AB - Dense, cold gas is the key ingredient for star formation. Over the last two decades, HCN(1 - 0) emission has been the most accessible dense gas tracer for studying external galaxies. We present new measurements that demonstrate the relationship between dense gas tracers, bulk molecular gas tracers, and star formation in the ALMA ALMOND survey, the largest sample of resolved (1-2 kpc resolution) HCN maps of galaxies in the local Universe (d < 25 Mpc). We measured HCN/CO, a line ratio sensitive to the physical density distribution, and the star formation rate to HCN ratio (SFR/HCN), a proxy for the dense gas star formation efficiency, as a function of molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and dynamical equilibrium pressure across 31 galaxies (a factor of > 3 more compared to the previously largest such study, EMPIRE). HCN/CO increases (slope of ≈ 0.5 and scatter of ≈ 0.2 dex) and SFR/HCN decreases (slope of ≈ - 0.6 and scatter of ≈ 0.4 dex) with increasing molecular gas surface density, stellar mass surface density, and pressure. Galaxy centres with high stellar mass surface densities show a factor of a few higher HCN/CO and lower SFR/HCN compared to the disc average, but the two environments follow the same average trend. Our results emphasise that molecular gas properties vary systematically with the galactic environment and demonstrate that the scatter in the Gao-Solomon relation (SFR/HCN) has a physical origin.

KW - Galaxies: ISM

KW - Galaxies: star formation

KW - ISM: molecules

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85218135095

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85218135095#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/202453208

DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/202453208

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85218135095

SN - 0004-6361

VL - 693

JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics

JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics

M1 - L13

ER -

Dense gas scaling relations at kiloparsec scales across nearby galaxies with the ALMA ALMOND and IRAM 30 m EMPIRE surveys

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Keywords

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