Bibcode
García-Burillo, S.; Combes, F.; Ramos Almeida, C.; Usero, A.; Krips, M.; Alonso-Herrero, A.; Aalto, S.; Casasola, V.; Hunt, L. K.; Martín, S.; Viti, S.; Colina, L.; Costagliola, F.; Eckart, A.; Fuente, A.; Henkel, C.; Márquez, I.; Neri, R.; Schinnerer, E.; Tacconi, L. J.; van der Werf, P. P.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 823, Issue 1, article id. L12, pp. (2016).
Advertised on:
5
2016
Citations
189
Refereed citations
169
Description
We used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to map the emission of
the CO(6–5) molecular line and the 432 μm continuum emission
from the 300 pc sized circumnuclear disk (CND) of the nearby Seyfert 2
galaxy NGC 1068 with a spatial resolution of ∼4 pc. These
observations spatially resolve the CND and, for the first time, image
the dust emission, the molecular gas distribution, and the kinematics
from a 7–10 pc diameter disk that represents the submillimeter
counterpart of the putative torus of NGC 1068. We fitted the nuclear
spectral energy distribution of the torus using ALMA and near- and
mid-infrared (NIR/MIR) data with CLUMPY torus models. The mass and
radius of the best-fit solution for the torus are both consistent with
the values derived from the ALMA data alone:
{M}{{gas}}{{torus}}=(1+/- 0.3)×
{10}5 {M}ȯ and R torus = 3.5
± 0.5 pc. The dynamics of the molecular gas in the torus show
strong non-circular motions and enhanced turbulence superposed on a
surprisingly slow rotation pattern of the disk. By contrast with the
nearly edge-on orientation of the H2O megamaser disk, we
found evidence suggesting that the molecular torus is less inclined (i =
34°–66°) at larger radii. The lopsided morphology and
complex kinematics of the torus could be the signature of the
Papaloizou–Pringle instability, long predicted to likely drive the
dynamical evolution of active galactic nuclei tori.