Molecular gas filaments and fallback in the ram pressure stripped Coma spiral NGC 4921

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution CO observations to explore how ram pressure stripping affects molecular gas in galaxy NGC 4921, revealing filamentary structures, gas compression, and evidence of gas fallback, including re-accretion phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first clear observational evidence of molecular gas fallback and re-accretion in a ram pressure stripped galaxy, supported by detailed kinematic and morphological analysis.

Findings

Detection of molecular filaments connected to the main gas ridge.

Evidence of gas compression and enhanced star formation on the leading side.

Identification of molecular clouds likely falling back towards the galaxy.

Abstract

We investigate the effects of ram pressure on the molecular ISM in the disk of the Coma cluster galaxy NGC 4921, via high resolution CO observations. We present 6" resolution CARMA CO(1-0) observations of the full disk, and 0.4" resolution ALMA CO(2-1) observations of the leading quadrant, where ram pressure is strongest. We find evidence for compression of the dense interstellar medium (ISM) on the leading side, spatially correlated with intense star formation activity in this zone. We also detect molecular gas along kiloparsec-scale filaments of dust extending into the otherwise gas stripped zone of the galaxy, seen in HST images. We find the filaments are connected kinematically as well as spatially to the main gas ridge located downstream, consistent with cloud decoupling inhibited by magnetic binding, and inconsistent with a simulated filament formed via simple ablation. Furthermore, we find several clouds of molecular gas $\sim 1-3$ kpc beyond the main ring of CO that have velocities which are blueshifted by up to 50 km s$^{-1}$ with respect to the rotation curve of the galaxy. These are some of the only clouds we detect that do not have any visible dust extinction associated with them, suggesting that they are located behind the galaxy disk midplane and are falling back towards the galaxy. Simulations have long predicted that some gas removed from the galaxy disk will fall back during ram pressure stripping. This may be the first clear observational evidence of gas re-accretion in a ram pressure stripped galaxy.