Surveying the Whirlpool at Arcseconds with NOEMA (SWAN): III. $^{13}$CO/C$^{18}$O ratio variations across the M51 galaxy

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution NOEMA observations to map CO isotopologue ratios across M51, revealing how galactic environment influences molecular gas chemistry and physical conditions relevant to star formation.

Contribution

It provides the first high-resolution, multi-environment analysis of $^{13}$CO/C$^{18}$O ratio variations across M51, linking chemical processes to galactic structure.

Findings

Ratio increases with galactocentric radius

Ratio decreases with star formation rate surface density

Variations depend on galactic environment

Abstract

CO isotopologues are common tracers of the bulk molecular gas in extragalactic studies, providing insights into the physical and chemical conditions of the cold molecular gas, a reservoir for star formation. Since star formation occurs within molecular clouds, mapping CO isotopologues at cloud-scale is important to understanding the processes driving star formation. However, achieving this mapping at such scales is challenging and time-intensive. The Surveying the Whirlpool Galaxy at Arcseconds with NOEMA (SWAN) survey addresses this by using the Institut de radioastronomie millim\'etrique (IRAM) NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) to map the $^{13}$CO(1-0) and C$^{18}$O(1-0) isotopologues, alongside several dense gas tracers, in the nearby star-forming galaxy M51 at high sensitivity and spatial resolution ($\approx$ 125 pc).We examine the $^{13}$CO(1-0) to C$^{18}$O(1-0) line emission ratio as a function of galactocentric radius and star formation rate surface density to infer how different chemical and physical processes affect this ratio at cloud scales across different galactic environments: nuclear bar, molecular ring, northern and southern spiral arms. In line with previous studies conducted at kiloparsec scales for nearby star-forming galaxies, we find a moderate positive correlation with galactocentric radius and a moderate negative correlation with star formation rate surface density across the field-of-view (FoV), with slight variations depending on the galactic environment. We propose that selective nucleosynthesis and changes in the opacity of the gas are the primary drivers of the observed variations in the ratio.