The PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS). I. A Cloud-Scale/Multi-Wavelength View of the Interstellar Medium in a Grand-Design Spiral Galaxy

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution molecular gas maps of M51 to explore its relationship with various ISM components, star formation, and stellar populations, revealing complex spatial correlations influenced by galactic environment.

Contribution

First detailed multi-wavelength, high-resolution analysis of molecular gas in M51, linking gas distribution to gravitational potential and other ISM tracers.

Findings

Molecular gas distribution correlates with gravitational potential components.

CO emission relates to radio continuum independently of massive stars.

PAH emission closely associates with molecular gas but does not predict its mass.

Abstract

The PdBI (Plateau de Bure Interferometer) Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS) has mapped the molecular gas in the central ~9kpc of M51 in its 12CO(1-0) line emission at cloud-scale resolution of ~40pc using both IRAM telescopes. We utilize this dataset to quantitatively characterize the relation of molecular gas (or CO emission) to other tracers of the interstellar medium (ISM), star formation and stellar populations of varying ages. Using 2-dimensional maps, a polar cross-correlation technique and pixel-by-pixel diagrams, we find: (a) that (as expected) the distribution of the molecular gas can be linked to different components of the gravitational potential, (b) evidence for a physical link between CO line emission and radio continuum that seems not to be caused by massive stars, but rather depend on the gas density, (c) a close spatial relation between the PAH and molecular gas emission, but no predictive power of PAH emission for the molecular gas mass,(d) that the I-H color map is an excellent predictor of the distribution (and to a lesser degree the brightness) of CO emission, and (e) that the impact of massive (UV-intense) young star-forming regions on the bulk of the molecular gas in central ~9kpc can not be significant due to a complex spatial relation between molecular gas and star-forming regions that ranges from co-spatial to spatially offset to absent. The last point, in particular, highlights the importance of galactic environment -- and thus the underlying gravitational potential -- for the distribution of molecular gas and star formation.