AST/RO Observations of CO J=7-6 and J=4-3 Emission toward the Galactic   Center Region
  We present position-velocity strip maps of the Galactic Center region in the CO J=7-6 and J=4-3 transitions observed with the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO) located at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Emission from the two rotational transitions of 12^CO was mapped at b=0 deg for 3.5 deg > l > -1.5 deg, on a 1' grid with a FWHM beamsize of 58'' at 806 GHz and 105'' at 461 GHz. Previous observations of CO J=4-3 (Martin et al., in preparation) and CI (Ojha et al. 2001) emission from this region show that these lines are distributed in a manner similar to CO J=1-0 (Stark et al. 1987); the (CO J=4-3)/(CO J=1-0) line ratio map is almost featureless across the entire Galactic Center region. In contrast, the CO J=7-6 emission from the Galactic Center is strongly peaked toward the Sgr A and Sgr B molecular complexes. A Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) analysis shows that aside from the two special regions Sgr A and Sgr B, the photon-dominated regions within a few hundred parsecs of the Galactic Center are remarkably uniform in mean density and kinetic temperature at n = 2500 to 4000 cm^{-3} and T=30 to 45K. The (CO J=7-6)/(CO J=4-3) line temperature ratios near Sgr B are a factor of two higher than those observed in the nuclear region of the starburst galaxy M82 (Mao et al. 2000), while the CO(J=7-6)/CO(J=4-3) line temperature ratios around Sgr A are similar to M82. The line ratio on large scales from the Galactic Center region is an order of magnitude less than that from M82. 
Sungeun Kim, Christopher L. Martin, Antony A. Stark, Adair P. Lane   (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)