First Detection of A Sub-kpc Scale Molecular Outflow in the Starburst Galaxy NGC 3628

TL;DR

This study reports the first detection of a sub-kiloparsec molecular outflow in the starburst galaxy NGC 3628, revealing details about its properties, energetics, and evolutionary stage through deep CO observations and multi-wavelength analysis.

Contribution

First detection of a sub-kpc molecular outflow in NGC 3628 using CO(1-0) observations, providing insights into its physical properties and evolutionary status.

Findings

Molecular outflow mass ~2.8x10^7 M_sun

Outflow velocity ~90 km/s

Starburst activity is in a young stage

Abstract

We successfully detected a molecular outflow with a scale of 370-450 pc in the central region of the starburst galaxy NGC 3628 through deep CO(1-0) observations by using the Nobeyama Millimeter Array (NMA). The mass of the outflowing molecular gas is ~2.8x10^7 M_sun, and the outflow velocity is ~90(+/-10) km s^{-1}. The expansion timescale of the outflow is 3.3-6.8 Myr, and the molecular gas mass flow rate is 4.1-8.5 M_sun yr^{-1}. It requires mechanical energy of (1.8-2.8)x10^{54} erg to create this sub-kpc scale molecular outflow. In order to understand the evolution of the molecular outflow, we compare the physical properties between the molecular outflow observed from our NMA CO(1-0) data and the plasma gas from the soft X-ray emission of the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) archival data. We found that the distribution between the molecular outflow and the strong plasma outflow seems to be in a similar region. In this region, the ram pressure and the thermal pressure of the plasma outflow are 10^{-(8-10)} dyne cm^{-2}, and the thermal pressure of molecular outflow is 10^{-(11-13)} dyne cm^{-2}. This implies the molecular outflow is still expanding outward. The molecular gas consumption timescale is estimated as 17-27 Myr, and the total starburst timescale is 20-34 Myr. The evolutionary parameter is 0.11-0.25, suggesting that the starburst activity in NGC 3628 is still in a young stage.