2011.0 - Proposal Author Affiliation
PI
Ott, Juergen
COI
Muller, Sebastien
Meier, David
Peck, Alison
Impellizzeri, Violette
Walter, Fabian
Henkel, Christian
Martin, Sergio
Aalto, Susanne
van der Werf, Paul
Feain, Ilana
Title
The Physics and Chemisty of Gas in Centaurus A and its Host
Abstract
Centaurus A with its host NGC5128 is the most nearby radio galaxy. Its molecular spectrum exhibits three
prominent features: a) gas that is located in the outer disk and dust lanes, b) absorption lines that are
supposedly close to the central AGN, and c) gas in emission from the nucleus. We propose to observe the
absorption system in a variety of molecular lines. The molecular lines are chosen to be tracers of column
and volume density, temperature, photon- and X-ray dominated regions (X-ray dominated regions are a
crucial marker for gas close to the supermassive black hole), shocks and excitation conditions. This will
allow us to derive the physical state of the gas at each spectral component as well as the chemistry
involved. Our goal is to derive the origin and physics of each absorption component, reaching from the
central black hole, through the region that supplies the supermassive black hole with material, regions of
possible infall or outflow, the stellar disk and the outer dust lanes. This ALMA proposal will complement a
comprehensive survey of the 1.2cm and 7mm lines of an approved ATCA program, which contains tracers
of temperature and also lower transitions of the molecules to be observed with ALMA. Together, the ALMA
and ATCA data will form a truely unique spectral survey for a radio galaxy and will much likely become the
template for all searches of molecular tracers in similar objects at all cosmic epochs.
PI
Belloche, Arnaud
COI
Menten, Karl
Müller, Holger
Garrod, Robin
EU
EU
NA
Germany
Germany
United States
Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy
Cologne, University of
Cornell University
Exec
EU
Country
Germany
Institute
Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy
EU
NA
NA
NA
EU
EU
EU
EU
EU
OTHER
Sweden
United States
United States
United States
Germany
Germany
Chile
Sweden
Netherlands
Australia
Chalmers University of Technology
New Mexico Tech
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy
Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy
European Southern Observatory
Chalmers University of Technology
Leiden University
Astronomy and Space Science
Exec
NA
Country
United States
Institute
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
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