ACES: The Magnetic Field in Large Filaments in the Galactic Center

Abstract The Galactic center (GC) is an extreme region of the Milky Way that is host to a complex set of thermal and nonthermal structures. In particular, the GC contains high-density gas and dust that is collectively referred to as the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). In this work, we study a subset of HNCO filaments identified in Band 3 Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the GC obtained by the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey that are comparable to high-density filaments identified in the Galactic disk. We compare the orientation of the magnetic field derived from 214 μ m Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy and 850 μ m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope observations with the filament orientation to determine which mechanisms dominate the formation of these filaments. We observe a large range of magnetic orientations in our observed filaments indicating the complex environments the filaments are located in. We also compare the observational results to synthetic datasets created using an MHD model of the GC. Our analysis reveals that the dominant mechanisms local to the HNCO filaments vary throughout the GC with some filaments being dominated by supersonic turbulence and others by subsonic turbulence. The comparison to synthetic observations indicates that the observed filaments are in magnetically dominated environments that could be supporting these filaments against collapse. Our results on the CMZ filaments are also compared to results obtained on similar filaments located in the Galactic disk, and we find that the filaments studied here are possible CMZ analogs to the dense filamentary “bones” observed previously in the Galactic disk.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Published
2026-03-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae22ce
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
Type
article
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article

ACES: The Magnetic Field in Large Filaments in the Galactic Center

Laura Colzi, Christoph Federrath, Q. Zhang, J. Wallace et al.
The Astrophysical Journal
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
article

ACES: The Magnetic Field in Large Filaments in the Galactic Center

Laura Colzi, Christoph Federrath, Q. Zhang, J. Wallace, Christian Henkel, A. Schmiedeke, Jack Sullivan, E. N. Clare Mills, M. C. Sormani, Pei-Ying Hsieh, John Bally, Ptp Ho, Zi‐Xuan Feng, A. Sanchez-Monge, Cara Battersby, Natalie Butterfield, Dani Lipman, Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, Pablo García, M. Donati, Xing Pan, Dylan M Paré, Savannah R. Gramze, Adam Ginsburg, Yue Hu, J. M. Diederik Kruijssen, Xing Lu, Daniel L. Walker, Ralf S. Klessen, Janik Karoly, Jonathan D. Henshaw, Alex Lazarian, Steven N. Longmore, Maya A. Petkova, Robin G. Tress, Ashley T. Barnes
article en

Abstract

Abstract The Galactic center (GC) is an extreme region of the Milky Way that is host to a complex set of thermal and nonthermal structures. In particular, the GC contains high-density gas and dust that is collectively referred to as the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). In this work, we study a subset of HNCO filaments identified in Band 3 Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the GC obtained by the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey that are comparable to high-density filaments identified in the Galactic disk. We compare the orientation of the magnetic field derived from 214 μ m Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy and 850 μ m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope observations with the filament orientation to determine which mechanisms dominate the formation of these filaments. We observe a large range of magnetic orientations in our observed filaments indicating the complex environments the filaments are located in. We also compare the observational results to synthetic datasets created using an MHD model of the GC. Our analysis reveals that the dominant mechanisms local to the HNCO filaments vary throughout the GC with some filaments being dominated by supersonic turbulence and others by subsonic turbulence. The comparison to synthetic observations indicates that the observed filaments are in magnetically dominated environments that could be supporting these filaments against collapse. Our results on the CMZ filaments are also compared to results obtained on similar filaments located in the Galactic disk, and we find that the filaments studied here are possible CMZ analogs to the dense filamentary “bones” observed previously in the Galactic disk.

The Astrophysical JournalVol. 1000(1)
University of Insubria (IT), Australian National University (AU), Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (TW), European Southern Observatory (DE), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), University of Connecticut (US), University of Kansas (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Heidelberg University (DE), National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US), Atacama Large Millimeter Submillimeter Array (CL), Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (CN), Universidad Católica del Norte (CL), University of Manchester (GB), University of Florida (US), Institute for Advanced Study (US), Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (ES), Excellence Cluster Origins (DE), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Institute of Space Sciences (ES), Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (US), East Asian Observatory (US), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ES), Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), Beijing Chaoyang Emergency Medical Center (CN), University College London (GB), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), Liverpool John Moores University (GB), Chalmers University of Technology (SE), Nanjing University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 27%
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
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