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Abstract

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way is a region of molecular gas within the inner few hundred parsecs of the Galaxy. This inner region of the Milky Way is hotter and more turbulent when compared with the disk of the Milky Way. Gas is thought to be funneled into the CMZ through dense gaseous dust lanes that are associated with the Galactic Bar. I studied two regions of one of these dust lanes using the NH3 inversion transitions of (J,K) = (1,1), (2,2), (3,3), and (4,4). Data has been obtained from the Green Bank Telescope targeting these transitions at ∼32′′ angular resolution. I present results probing the kinematic and thermal structure of our target gas clouds. I find the velocity of the pilot region gas cloud to be around 205 km s−1 as it accretes into the CMZ of the Milky Way. I also find the velocity of a gas cloud more toward the edge of this dust lane to be around 130 kms−1. When comparing the (1,1) to the (2,2) transition lines to probe temperature, I found a temperature of ∼20K (± 6.6K) for the pilot region and a temperature of ∼17K (± 6.6K) for the edge region. When comparing the (2,2) to the (4,4) transition lines I found a temperature of ∼65K (± 3.15K) for the pilot region. These values are in mutual agreement as the temperatures found in the edge region are slightly cooler than those found in the pilot region which is located at the midpoint of the dust lane. I use dendrogram analysis to analyze the multiple velocity components within each gas cloud. I also find heavy spatial coherence between the NH3 data, infrared emission, and CO data found for both regions.

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