J/A+A/694/A87ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/694/A87doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.36940087CDSKovacic I.Barnes A.T.Bigiel F.De Looze I.Madden S.C.,Herrera-Camus R.Krabbe A.Baes M.Beck A.Bolatto A.D.Bryant A.,Coldirt S.Fischer C.Geis N.Iserlohe C.Klein R.Leroy A.,Looney L.W.Poglitsch A.Sartorio N.S.Vacca W.D.van der Giessen S.,Nersesian A.2025-05-21T20:02:13Z2025-02-05T08:47:23ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frgalaxiesinfrared-astronomyspectroscopyAs a major cooling line of interstellar gas, the far-infrared 158um line from singly ionised carbon [CII] is an important tracer of various components of the interstellar medium in galaxies across all spatial and morphological scales. Yet, there is still not a strong constraint on the origins of [CII] emission. In this work, we derive the resolved [CII] star formation rate relation and aim to unravel the complexity of the origin of [CII]. We used the Field-Imaging Far-Infrared Line Spectrometer on board the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy to map [CII] in three nearby star-forming galaxies at sub-kiloparsec scales, namely, NGC 3627, NGC 4321, and NGC 6946, and we compared these [CII] observations to the galactic properties derived from complementary data from the literature. We find that the relationship between the [CII] fine structure line and star formation rate shows variations between the galaxies as well as between different environments within each galaxy. Our results show that the use of [CII] as a tracer for star formation is much more tangled than has previously been suggested within the extragalactic literature, which typically focuses on small regions of galaxies and/or uses large-aperture sampling of many different physical environments. As found within resolved observations of the Milky Way, the picture obtained from [CII] observations is complicated by its local interstellar medium conditions. Future studies will require a larger sample and additional observational tracers, obtained on spatial scales within galaxies, in order to accurately disentangle the origin of [CII] and calibrate its use as a star formation tracer.2025A&A...694A..87Khttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/694/A87CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/694/A87https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/694/A87http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/694/A87https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/694/A87https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/694/A87http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/694/A87GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/A+A/694/A87/list (List of fits images)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/694/A87/list?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/694/A87/list?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/694/A87/list?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true308.9657360.144550.005555555555555556Associated datahttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/assocdata/?obs_collection=J/A+A/694/A876/15593 28033 28167https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/A+A/694/A87?format=asciiInfrareddefaultJ/A+A/694/A87/listList of fits imagesrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintRAJ2000Right Ascension of center (J2000)degpos.eq.ra;meta.mainDEJ2000Declination of center (J2000)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainNxNumber of pixels along X-axismeta.numberintNyNumber of pixels along Y-axismeta.numberintNzNumber of pixels along Z-axismeta.numberintObs.dateObservation datestime.epoch;obsnullablesizeSize of FITS fileKibytephys.size;meta.fitsintFileNameName of FITS file, in subdirectory fitsmeta.id;meta.fitscharTitleTitle of the FITS filemeta.title;meta.fitschar