The Evolutionary Sequence of Giant Molecular Clouds in M51

• Antragstellerin: Dr. Eva Schinnerer
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Astrophysik und Astronomie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2010 bis 2014
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 173134848

The recently started IRAM/PdBI Large Project ’GMCs in M51’ (PI Schinnerer) will resolve the molecular gas (traced by its CO emission) into individual giant molecular clouds (GMCs) within the central 9 kpc of M51a at 40 pc resolution – the first time any grand design spiral galaxy will be mapped with the resolution to distinguish individual GMCs. This legacy dataset will enable an unprecedented view of the formation and evolution of the fundamental units of the star-forming interstellar medium (ISM) in a massive spiral galaxy besides our own. The objectives of this project are to measure the GMC luminosity function across several distinct environments (center, spiral arm/inter-arm region), the star formation efficiency of individual GMCs (i.e. a resolved Schmidt law), and the spatial correlations among GMCs, spiral structure, star clusters, and star formation tracers with varying age sensitivities. This will yield new constraints on fundamental questions: What kind of GMCs are created in different environments? How efficiently do they form stars? And how long do they live? Funding for one post-doc and one PhD student (for 3 years) is requested to help with the complex data reduction and analysis and the interpretation of this unique dataset on external GMCs utilizing ancillary data from UV to infrared and radio wavelengths.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen