A large-scale CO imaging of the Galactic Center - II. Dynamical properties of molecular clouds

The data from the Nobeyama Radio Observatory 45 m telescope Galactic Center CO survey have been analyzed to generate a compilation of molecular clouds with intense CO emission in this region. Clouds are identified in an automated manner throughout the main part of the survey data for all CO emission peaks exceeding 10 K (T(R)*). Correlations between the size, velocity dispersion, virial mass, and the CO luminosity, for the molecular clouds in the Galactic center were shown. We diagnosed gravitational stabilities of identified clouds assuming that the disk clouds are nearly at the onset of gravitational instability. Most of the clouds and cloud complexes in the Galactic center are gravitationally stable, while some clouds with intense CO emission are gravitationally unstable. (C) 1999 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.