Widespread Methanol Emission from the Galactic Center
F. Yusef-Zadeh, W. Cotton, S. Viti, M. Wardle, M. Royster

TL;DR
This study discovers widespread collisionally excited methanol emission in the Galactic center, revealing a large abundance of methanol likely driven by cosmic ray-induced photodesorption, with implications for understanding molecular chemistry in this region.
Contribution
It reports the first large-scale detection of methanol maser candidates in the Galactic center and models cosmic ray-driven methanol abundance, advancing knowledge of molecular processes there.
Findings
356 methanol sources detected, mostly maser candidates
Methanol abundance consistent with cosmic ray-induced photodesorption
Correlation between methanol and SiO emission in key clouds
Abstract
We report the discovery of a widespread population of collisionally excited methanol J = 4_{-1} to 3$_0 E sources at 36.2 GHz from the inner 66'x18' (160x43 pc) of the Galactic center. This spectral feature was imaged with a spectral resolution of ~16.6 km/s taken from 41 channels of a VLA continuum survey of the Galactic center region. The revelation of 356 methanol sources, most of which are maser candidates, suggests a large abundance of methanol in the gas phase in the Galactic center region. There is also spatial and kinematic correlation between SiO (2--1) and CH3OH emission from four Galactic center clouds: the +50 and +20 km/s clouds and G0.13-0.13 and G0.25+0.01. The enhanced abundance of methanol is accounted for in terms of induced photodesorption by cosmic rays as they travel through a molecular core, collide, dissociate, ionize, and excite Lyman Werner transitions of H2. A…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
