Paper detail

A Radio Survey of Galactic Center Clouds

We present a survey of molecules in a sample of Galactic center molecular clouds using the Karl G. Jansky Very large Array, which includes M0.25+0.01, the clouds near Sgr A, and Sgr B2. The molecules detected are primarily NH3 and HC3N; in Sgr B2-N we also detect nonmetastable NH3, vibrationally-excited HC3N, torsionally-excited CH3OH, and numerous isotopologues of these species. 36 GHz Class I CH3OH masers are ubiquitous in these fields, and in several cases are associated with new NH3 (3,3) maser candidates. We also find that NH3 and HC3N are depleted or absent toward several of the highest dust column density peaks identified in submillimeter observations, which are associated with water masers and are thus likely in the early stages of star formation.