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The Varying Mass Distribution of Molecular Clouds Across M83
Astrophysics of Galaxies · Submitted 24 Feb 2017
abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review
The authors' main claim Like the young massive clusters, we find a maximum-mass scale for the molecular clouds that decreases radially in the galaxy.
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The abstract, sentence by sentence
The work of Adamo et al. (2015) showed that the mass distributions of young massive stellar clusters were truncated above a maximum-mass scale in the nearby galaxy M83 and that this truncation mass varies with galactocentric radius. Here, we present a cloud-based analysis of ALMA CO($1\to 0$) observations of M83 to search for such a truncation mass in the molecular cloud population. We identify a population of 873 molecular clouds in M83 that is largely similar to those found in the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies, though clouds in the centre of the galaxy show high surface densities and enhanced turbulence, as is common for clouds in high-density nuclear environments. Like the young massive clusters, we find a maximum-mass scale for the molecular clouds that decreases radially in the galaxy. We find the most massive young massive cluster tracks the most massive molecular cloud with the cluster mass being $10^{-2}$ times that of the most massive molecular cloud. Outside the nuclear region of M83 ($R_{g}>0.5$ kpc), there is no evidence for changing internal conditions in the population of molecular clouds, with the average internal pressures, densities, and free-fall times remaining constant for the cloud population over the galaxy. This result is consistent with the bound cluster formation efficiency depending only on the large-scale properties of the ISM, rather than the internal conditions of individual clouds.
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | The work of Adamo et al. (2015) showed that the mass distributions of young massive stellar clusters were truncated above a maximum-mass scale in the nearby galaxy M83 and that this truncation mass varies with galactocentric radius. | background 1.00 | 0.02 | 0.04 | asserted 1.00 |
| s1 | Here, we present a cloud-based analysis of ALMA CO($1\to 0$) observations of M83 to search for such a truncation mass in the molecular cloud population. | contribution 0.89 | 0.87 | 0.04 | asserted 0.61 |
| s2 | We identify a population of 873 molecular clouds in M83 that is largely similar to those found in the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies, though clouds in the centre of the galaxy show high surface densities and enhanced turbulence, as is common for clouds in high-density nuclear environments. | result 0.97 | 0.94 | 0.06 | asserted 1.00 |
| s3 | Like the young massive clusters, we find a maximum-mass scale for the molecular clouds that decreases radially in the galaxy. | result 1.00 | 0.97 | 0.77 | asserted 1.00 |
| s4 | We find the most massive young massive cluster tracks the most massive molecular cloud with the cluster mass being $10^{-2}$ times that of the most massive molecular cloud. | result 1.00 | 0.94 | 0.13 | asserted 1.00 |
| s5 | Outside the nuclear region of M83 ($R_{g}>0.5$ kpc), there is no evidence for changing internal conditions in the population of molecular clouds, with the average internal pressures, densities, and free-fall times remaining constant for the cloud population over the galaxy. | result 1.00 | 0.94 | 0.18 | asserted 0.99 |
| s6 | This result is consistent with the bound cluster formation efficiency depending only on the large-scale properties of the ISM, rather than the internal conditions of individual clouds. | interpretation 1.00 | 0.39 | 0.26 | hedged possibility 0.99 |
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Original abstract
The work of Adamo et al. (2015) showed that the mass distributions of young massive stellar clusters were truncated above a maximum-mass scale in the nearby galaxy M83 and that this truncation mass varies with galactocentric radius. Here, we present a cloud-based analysis of ALMA CO($1\to 0$) observations of M83 to search for such a truncation mass in the molecular cloud population. We identify a population of 873 molecular clouds in M83 that is largely similar to those found in the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies, though clouds in the centre of the galaxy show high surface densities and enhanced turbulence, as is common for clouds in high-density nuclear environments. Like the young massive clusters, we find a maximum-mass scale for the molecular clouds that decreases radially in the galaxy. We find the most massive young massive cluster tracks the most massive molecular cloud with the cluster mass being $10^{-2}$ times that of the most massive molecular cloud. Outside the nuclear region of M83 ($R_{g}>0.5$ kpc), there is no evidence for changing internal conditions in the population of molecular clouds, with the average internal pressures, densities, and free-fall times remaining constant for the cloud population over the galaxy. This result is consistent with the bound cluster formation efficiency depending only on the large-scale properties of the ISM, rather than the internal conditions of individual clouds.
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References
How the literature uses it
4 arXiv papers cite this in 13 sentences
Papers citing it · 9 sentences without a confident label
Uses its data or values 2 papers
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For the GMC sample, we use the cloud catalogue of [ref] , who present data obtained with ALMA, whereas for the clusters, we use the sample from [ref] , based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data.
A unified model for the maximum mass-scales of molecular clouds, stellar clusters, and high-redshift clumps · M83 · 0.98
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We predict the cloud lifetimes in M83 using the observational data given in Figure 6 of [ref] .
A general theory for the lifetimes of giant molecular clouds under the influence of galactic dynamics · M83 · 0.99
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