Paper detail

The local radio-IR correlation in M51

We observed M51 at three frequencies, 1.4GHz (20cm), 4.9GHz (6cm) and 8.4GHz (3.6cm), with the VLA and the Effelsberg 100m telescope to obtain the highest quality radio continuum images of a nearby spiral galaxy. These radio data were combined with deconvolved Spitzer IRAC 8mum and MIPS 24mum images to search for and investigate local changes in the radio-IR correlation. Utilizing wavelet decomposition, we compare the distribution of the radio and IR emission on spatial scales between 200pc and 30kpc. We show that the radio-IR correlation is not uniform across the galactic disk. It presents a complex behavior with local extrema corresponding to various galactic structures, such as complexes of HII regions, spiral arms and interarm filaments, indicating that the contribution of the thermal and non-thermal radio emission is a strong function of environment. In particular, the relation of the 24mum and 20cm emission presents a linear relation within the spiral arms and globally over the galaxy, while it deviates from linearity in the interarm and outer regions as well in the inner region, with two different behaviours: it is sublinear in the interarm and outer region and over-linear in the central 3.5kpc. Our analysis suggests that the changes in the radio/IR correlation reflect variations of ISM properties between spiral arms and interarm region. The good correlation in the spiral arms implies that 24mum and 20cm are tracing recent star formation, while a change in the dust opacity, 'Cirrus' contribution to the IR emission and/or the relation between the magnetic field strength and the gas density can explain the different relations found in the interarm, outer and inner regions.