Temperature and Density in the Foot Points of the Molecular Loops in the
  Galactic Center; Analysis of Multi-J Transitions of 12CO(J=1-0, 3-2, 4-3,
  7-6), 13CO(J=1-0) and C18O(J=1-0)
  Fukui et al. (2006) discovered two molecular loops in the Galactic center and
argued that the foot points of the molecular loops, two bright spots at both
loops ends, represent the gas accumulated by the falling motion along the
loops, subsequent to magnetic flotation by the Parker instability. We have
carried out sensitive CO observations of the foot points toward l=356 deg at a
few pc resolution in the six rotational transitions of CO; 12CO(J=1-0, 3-2,
4-3, 7-6), 13CO(J=1-0) and C18O(J=1-0). The high resolution image of 12CO
(J=3-2) has revealed the detailed distribution of the high excitation gas
including U shapes, the outer boundary of which shows sharp intensity jumps
accompanying strong velocity gradients. An analysis of the multi-J CO
transitions shows that the temperature is in a range from 30-100 K and density
is around 10^3-10^4 cm^-3, confirming that the foot points have high
temperature and density although there is no prominent radiative heating source
such as high mass stars in or around the loops. We argue that the high
temperature is likely due to the shock heating under C-shock condition caused
by the magnetic flotation. We made a comparison of the gas distribution with
theoretical numerical simulations and note that the U shape is consistent with
numerical simulations. We also find that the region of highest temperature of
~100 K or higher inside the U shape corresponds to the spur having an upward
flow, additionally heated up either by magnetic reconnection or bouncing in the
interaction with the narrow neck at the bottom of the U shape. We note these
new findings further reinforce the magnetic floatation interpretation.
