ALMA follows streaming of dense gas down to 40 pc from the supermassive black hole in NGC1097. (arXiv:1304.6722v1 [astro-ph.CO])

ALMA follows streaming of dense gas down to 40 pc from the supermassive black hole in NGC1097. (arXiv:1304.6722v1 [astro-ph.CO]):
We present a kinematic analysis of the dense molecular gas in the central 200
parsecs of the nearby galaxy NGC1097, based on Cycle 0 observations with the
Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA). We use the HCN(4-3) line
to trace the densest interstellar molecular gas, and quantify its kinematics,
and estimate an inflow rate for the molecular gas. We find a striking
similarity between the ALMA kinematic data and the analytic spiral inflow model
that we have previously constructed based on ionized gas velocity fields on
larger scales. We are able to follow dense gas streaming down to 40 pc distance
from the supermassive black hole in this Seyfert 1 galaxy. In order to fulfill
marginal stability, we deduce that the dense gas is confined to a very thin
disc, and we derive a dense gas inflow rate of 0.09 Msun/yr at 40 pc radius.
Combined with previous values from the Ha and CO gas, we calculate a combined
molecular and ionized gas inflow rate of 0.2 Msun/yr at 40 pc distance from the
central supermassive black hole of NGC1097.