UP - logo
E-resources
Full text
Peer reviewed Open access
  • The 107 GHz Methanol Transi...
    Bulatek, Alyssa; Ginsburg, Adam; Darling, Jeremy; Henkel, Christian; Menten, Karl M.

    Astrophysical journal/˜The œAstrophysical journal, 10/2023, Volume: 956, Issue: 2
    Journal Article

    Abstract We present observations of population anti-inversion in the 3 1 − 4 0 A + transition of CH 3 OH (methanol) at 107.013831 GHz toward the Galactic center cloud G0.253+0.016 (“The Brick”). Anti-inversion of molecular level populations can result in absorption lines against the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in a phenomenon known as a “dasar.” We model the physical conditions under which the 107 GHz methanol transition dases and determine that dasing occurs at densities below 10 6 cm −3 and column densities between 10 13 and 10 16 cm −2 . We also find that for this transition, dasing does not strongly depend on the gas kinetic temperature. We evaluate the potential of this tool for future deep galaxy surveys. We note that other works have already reported absorption in this transition (e.g., in NGC 253), but we provide the first definitive evidence that it is absorption against the CMB rather than against undetected continuum sources.