The Carbon-to-H$_2$, CO-to-H$_2$ Conversion Factors and Carbon Abundance on Kiloparsec Scales in Nearby Galaxies

TL;DR

This study calibrates the [CI]-to-H2 and CO-to-H2 conversion factors at kiloparsec scales in six nearby galaxies, revealing their spatial variation and relation to metallicity and infrared luminosity.

Contribution

First spatially resolved calibration of [CI]-to-H2 conversion factors across galaxy disks at ~1 kpc scale, incorporating multiple dust-to-gas ratio assumptions.

Findings

Conversion factors are mostly flat with galactocentric radius.

Central values of $\alpha_{CO}$ and $\alpha_{[CI](2-1)}$ are significantly lower than galaxy averages.

Carbon abundance profiles are flat and consistent with standard values.

Abstract

Using the atomic carbon [CI](1$-$0) and [CI](2$-$1) emission maps observed with the $Herschel\ Space\ Observatory$, and CO(1$-$0), HI, infrared and submm maps from literatures, we estimate the [CI]-to-H$_2$ and CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factors of $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](1-0)}$, $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](2-1)}$, and $\alpha_\mathrm{CO}$ at a linear resolution $\sim1\,$kpc scale for six nearby galaxies of M 51, M 83, NGC 3627, NGC 4736, NGC 5055, and NGC 6946. This is perhaps the first effort, to our knowledge, in calibrating both [CI]-to-H$_2$ conversion factors across the spiral disks at spatially resolved $\sim1\,$kpc scale though such studies have been discussed globally in galaxies near and far. In order to derive the conversion factors and achieve these calibrations, we adopt three different dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) assumptions which scale approximately with metallicity taken from precursory results. We find that for all DGR assumptions, the $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](1-0)}$, $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](2-1)}$, and $\alpha_\mathrm{CO}$ are mostly flat with galactocentric radii, whereas both $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](2-1)}$ and $\alpha_\mathrm{CO}$ show decrease in the inner regions of galaxies. And the central $\alpha_\mathrm{CO}$ and $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](2-1)}$ values are on average $\sim 2.2$ and $1.8$ times lower than its galaxy averages. The obtained carbon abundances from different DGR assumptions show flat profiles with galactocentric radii, and the average carbon abundance of the galaxies is comparable to the usually adopted value of $3 \times 10^{-5}$. We find that both metallicity and infrared luminosity correlate moderately with the $\alpha_\mathrm{CO}$ whereas only weakly with either the $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](1-0)}$ or carbon abundance, and not at all with the $\alpha_\mathrm{[CI](2-1)}$.