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Huang, Y.-L.

Publications and source records attributed to Huang, Y.-L..

The molecular content of interacting and isolated galaxies The effect of environment on the efficiency of star formation

Molecular gas observations of merging/interacting and isolated galaxies are presented in order to study the relationship between environment and the efficiency of star formation. The two galaxy samples differ primarily in their IR properties and are quite similar in their molecular gas contents. The ratios of IR luminosity to H2 mass have a mean value of 78 and 12 solar luminosity/solar mass for interacting and isolated galaxies, respectively. The highest star formation efficiencies (SFEs) appear to occur in the merging and interacting pairs. The SFE in merging/interacting galaxies is greater than that found in the spiral arms of M51 and may be roughly proportional to the rate of cloud-cloud collisions in the interacting systems.

Young, Judith S.↗

Molecular clouds and supernova remnants in the outer galaxy

The study of extragalactic supernova (SNs) suggests that Type II SNs, not Type I, tend to occur near extreme optical Population I objects, but the detection of these objects in the Galaxy is limited by heavy local obscuration. A CO survey has been conducted toward every confirmed outer Galaxy SNR from l = 70 to 210 deg, for a total of 26, and it is found that roughly half of them, within uncertainties of distance estimates, revealed spatial coincidences with large molecular cloud complexes. Most of the cloud complexes in these coincidences probably are the birthplaces of the progenitors of the corresponding Type II SNRs, because it is statistically improbable that the coincidences result from change superposition.

Huang, Y.-L.↗

The Sigma-D relation for shell-like supernova remnants

A large fraction of Galactic supernova remnants, including a dozen shell-like remnants, can be associated with large molecular clouds or cloud complexes with well-determined distances. The Sigma-D relation for these shell-like remnants, derived using distances to the associated molecular clouds, shows substantially smaller scatter than previous relations and establishes a good distance scale for shell-like remnants from Type II events.

Huang, Y.-L.↗

Nearby molecular clouds. I - Ophiuchus-Sagittarius, b greater than 10 deg

Observations of a 370-sq-deg area at b = 10-24 deg in the Oph-Sag region at the 115-GHz 1-0 transition of CO, obtained with a 256-channel spectrometer on the 1.2-m mm-wave telescope at Columbia University during winter 1980-1981 are reported. Observing parameters include full beamwidth at half power 8 arcmin, resolution 1 or 0.5 deg, velocity resolution 0.65 km/s, and frequency-shifting-mode shift 5 MHz; the data-processing scheme is described in detail. The results are presented in a map and a diagram and discussed with regard to other observations. An extended complex of molecular clouds near the sun and probably connected with the Aquila Rift, the Rho Oph Cloud, and the Gould Belt is detected. A correlation is found between the CO line intensity and the H I deficiency observed in the region, suggesting H2 formation with H2 column densities up to 1 x 10 to the 21st/sq cm.

Huang, Y.-L.↗

A large molecular cloud toward the SNR W50 and SS 433

The CO 1 yields 0 transition at 115 GHz has been mapped over an area of more than 6 deg sq toward W50, the extended SNR surrounding the peculiar object SS 433. W50 is found to lie at the end of a filamentary molecular cloud 4 deg long and 1 deg wide that closely matches a conspicuous dust lane on the Palomar Sky Survey; the cloud's kinematic distance is within 0.7 of 2.2 kpc, in agreement with the distance 2-3.3 kpc estimated for the SNR, and its mass is about 120,000 solar masses. Though there is little evidence of star formation in the molecular filament, or evidence of an interaction between the filament and W50 (or SS 433), the positional coincidence of the two, their similar distance, and their displacement nearly two molecular scale heights from the plane all suggest a physical relationship or common origin. One possibility is that both the molecular filament and the stellar progenitor of W50 were ejected from a large active molecular complex lying in the plane at l = 40 deg.

Huang, Y.-L.↗