LABOCA observations of nearby, active galaxies

TL;DR

This study presents detailed submillimeter maps of nearby active galaxies, revealing cold dust distribution, synchrotron emission, and gas mass estimates, providing insights into dust temperatures, gas content, and electron aging in radio lobes.

Contribution

First high-resolution submillimeter imaging of cold dust and synchrotron emission in these galaxies, linking dust properties with gas mass and electron aging.

Findings

Cold dust temperatures of 17-20 K in galaxy disks.

Gas masses of 2.1-4.2 billion solar masses.

Synchrotron spectrum shows a break indicating electron aging.

Abstract

We present large scale 870 micron maps of the nearby starburst galaxies NGC253, NGC4945 and the nearest giant elliptical radio galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) obtained with the newly commissioned Large Apex Bolometer Camera (LABOCA) operated at the APEX telescope. Our continuum images reveal for the first time the distribution of cold dust at a angular resolution of 20" across the entire optical disks of NGC253 and NGC4945 out to a radial distance of 10' (7.5 kpc). In NGC5128 our LABOCA image also shows, for the first time at submillimeter wavelengths, the synchrotron emission associated with the radio jet and the inner radio lobes. From an analysis of the 870 micron emission in conjunction with ISO-LWS, IRAS and long wavelengths radio data we find temperatures for the cold dust in the disks of all three galaxies of 17-20 K, comparable to the dust temperatures in the disk of the Milky Way. The total gas mass in the three galaxies is determined to be 2.1, 4.2 and 2.8 x 10^9 solar masses for NGC253, NGC4945 and NGC5128, respectively. A detailed comparison between the gas masses derived from the dust continuum and the integrated CO(1-0) intensity in NGC253 suggests that changes of the CO luminosity to molecular mass conversion factor are mainly driven by a metallicity gradient and only to a lesser degree by variations of the CO excitation. An analysis of the synchrotron spectrum in the northern radio lobe of NGC5128 shows that the synchrotron emission from radio to the ultraviolet wavelengths is well described by a broken power law and that the break frequency is a function of the distance from the radio core as expected for aging electrons. We derive an outflow speed of ~0.5c at a distance of 2.6kpc from the center, consistent with the speed derived in the vicinity of the nucleus.