Molecular cloud matching in CO and dust in M33

Understanding the physical properties such as mass, size, and surface mass density of giant molecular clouds or associations (GMCs/GMAs) in galaxies is crucial for gaining deeper insights into the molecular cloud and star formation (SF) processes. We determine these quantities for the Local Group flocculent spiral galaxy M33 using Herschel dust and archival 12CO(2 − 1) data from the IRAM 30 m telescope, and compare them to GMC/GMA properties of the Milky Way derived from CO literature data. For M33, we apply the Dendrogram algorithm on a novel 2D dust-derived NH2 map at an angular resolution of 18.2″ and on the 12CO(2 − 1) data and employ an XCO factor map instead of a constant value. Dust and CO-derived values are similar, with mean radii of ∼58 pc for the dust and ∼68 pc for CO, respectively. However, the largest GMAs have a radius of around 150 pc, similar to what was found in the Milky Way and other galaxies, suggesting a physical process that limits the size of GMAs. The less massive and smaller M33 galaxy also hosts less massive and lower-density GMCs compared to the Milky Way by an order of magnitude. Notably, the most massive (> a few 106 M⊙) GMC population observed in the Milky Way is mainly missing in M33. The mean surface mass density of M33 is significantly smaller than that of the Milky Way and this is attributed to higher column densities of the largest GMCs in the Milky Way, despite similar GMC areas. We find no systematic gradients in physical properties with the galactocentric radius in M33. However, surface mass densities and masses are higher near the center, implying increased SF activity. In both galaxies, the central region contains ∼30% of the total molecular mass. The index of the power-law spectrum of the GMC masses across the entire disk of M33 is α = 2.3 ± 0.1 and α = 1.9 ± 0.1 for dust- and CO-derived data, respectively. We conclude that GMC properties in M33 and the Milky Way are largely similar, though M33 lacks high-mass GMCs, for which there is no straightforward explanation. Additionally, GMC properties are only weakly dependent on the galactic environment, with stellar feedback playing a role that needs further investigation.