Study of the molecular gas towards the N11 region in the Large Magellanic Cloud

TL;DR

This study investigates molecular gas properties in the N11 region of the Large Magellanic Cloud using CO emission data, estimating cloud masses and isotope ratios to understand star-forming environments.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of molecular cloud masses and isotope ratios in N11 using high-resolution CO data, enhancing understanding of molecular gas in the LMC.

Findings

Estimated molecular cloud masses around 10^4 solar masses.

Found $^{12}$CO/$^{13}$CO ratios between 8 and 10.

Mapped molecular gas distribution in N11.

Abstract

We study three subregions in the HII region N11 which is located at the northeast side of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We used $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO J=3--2 data observed with the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) with an angular and spectral resolution of 22$^{\prime\prime}$ and 0.11 km s$^{-1}$ respectively. From the $^{12}$CO J=3--2 and $^{13}$CO J=3--2 integrated maps we estimated, assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), masses in about $10^4$ M$_\odot$ for the molecular clouds associated with each subregion. Additionally, from the mentioned maps we study the $^{12}$CO /$^{13}$CO integrated ratios for each subregion, obtaining values between 8 and 10.