The Physical Conditions and Dynamics of the Interstellar Medium in the Nucleus of M83: Observations of CO and C I

This paper presents [C I],12CO J = 4-3, and 12CO J = 3-2 maps of the barred spiral galaxy M83 taken at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Observations indicate a double-peaked structure, which is consistent with gas inflow along the bar collecting at the inner Lindblad resonance. This structure suggests that nuclear starbursts can occur even in galaxies where this inflow/collection occurs, in contrast to previous studies of barred spiral …