Physical Properties of Gas Departing from Circular Rotation at 50 pc Scales Using the PHANGS-MUSE Galaxies

Abstract Noncircular (NC) motions have been observed across various spatial scales in disk galaxies, yet the physical properties of the gas involved in these motions remain poorly constrained. Using data from 19 galaxies from the PHANGS-MUSE sample, we investigated the prevalence of NC flows at spatial resolutions of tens of parsecs. We developed a new tool for 3D kinematic modeling of data cubes and applied to the PHANGS-MUSE H α spectral lines to recover the underlying circular, NC motions, as well as the intrinsic velocity dispersion in these objects. The PHANGS-MUSE galaxies exhibit rotation-supported disks with V rot / σ intrin ratios ≳5. Our analysis revealed ionized gas exhibiting NC motions at different amplitudes, with low velocity amplitudes of about 5 km s −1 associated with the axisymmetric rotation component, deviations of ∼10 km s −1 primarily linked to interarm regions and spiral arms, and larger deviations (>20 km s −1 ), found in the central and bar regions. We found that the velocity dispersion and the strength of ionization correlate with the amplitude of NC motions, suggesting that the underlying dynamics of the warm gas are closely tied to its physical properties.